Pollution of the Oum Er-Rbiâ estuary: residents of Azemmour sound the alarm

Pollution of the Oum Er-Rbiâ estuary: residents of Azemmour sound the alarm
Pollution of the Oum Er-Rbiâ estuary: residents of Azemmour sound the alarm

The pollution of the Oum Er-Rbiâ estuary, near Azemmour, is resurfacing again.

New voices are stepping up to the plate, to warn about a situation deemed “catastrophic“, especially in the absence of rain capable of creating currents, indicates Al Akhbar this Tuesday, December 31.

I don’t cause, lit-on, «galloping urbanization, and industries that ignore environmental rules by discharging their waste into the estuary».

Associative actors, cited by the daily newspaper, therefore call for “the publication of the field study promised by the supervisory department, a prelude to a strategy capable of putting an end to this pollution».

In the meantime, the current situation threatens the demographic balance in Azemmour, and impacts the quality of the air that residents breathe, bothered by nauseating odors.

Largest wadi in Morocco, Oum Er-Rbiâ «has suffered for more than a decade from serious socio-economic deterioration, a situation which has worsened over the last four years.explains the daily, which relays the fact that “palliative measures are no longer enough, and a lasting and rapid solution is required, the level of pollution being combined with a lack of renewal of the waters of this wadi. As a result, the Oum Er-Rabia estuary has become almost a marsh».

In January 2023, there was talk of “implement the services of an agency or company responsible for developing the mouth of Oum Er-Rabia, on the model of the Marchica lagoon, Oued Martil and Oued Bouregreg».

This was one of the main recommendations of the exploratory mission established by the Committee on Infrastructure, Energy, Mines and the Environment, under the House of Representatives.

The members of this parliamentary mission also proposed “structural solutions, such as the rehabilitation of the wadi and the unblocking of its mouth, in order to ensure the normal flow of water from the wadi towards the ocean».

There was also talk of setting up a wastewater treatment plant and a waste treatment plant. But in reality, nothing has changed, and the situation is only getting worse.

According to estimates from the Oum Er-Rbia Hydraulic Basin Agency, this wadi extends over an area of ​​35,000 square kilometers, and takes its source in the Middle Atlas, at an altitude of 1,800 m, crossing this chain. of mountains, the Tadla plain and the coastal Meseta, to flow into the Atlantic Ocean almost 16 km from the town of El Jadida.

Par Walid Ayadi

12/30/2024 at 7:26 p.m.

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