Signal Morocco Pilots Porous 'Sponge' Pavement to Cool Streets in Marrakech and Agadir

Summary

Morocco is testing porous 'sponge' pavement as a replacement for heat-absorbing black asphalt in limited urban zones of Marrakech and Agadir under the 'Marrakech Sustainable City' program, launched in 2023 and involving Morocco's Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, local authorities, the UN Development Programme, and the Global Environment Facility, ecoTicias reported on August 6, 2026. Pilot data show the surfaces can run up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than conventional asphalt, referencing a similar Arizona EPA pilot where cool surfaces ran 10-16°F cooler than conventional pavement reaching about 152°F. The experiments remain limited in scope, with no public inventory of treated streets, and the article explicitly cautions against exaggerating the scale. The broader program carries $9.5 million in Global Environment Facility funding and is expected to directly benefit more than 1 million people, though no specific expansion timeline for the pavement pilots was disclosed. Permeable pavement is noted to work best on sidewalks, plazas, parking areas, and lightly traveled streets rather than major highways.