Waste from 400 Oujda factories pollutes Algerian waters
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on TSA
Illustrative image · Vash Project · Pexels · Licence PexelsWaste from 400 industrial units in Oujda is reportedly polluting the Mouilah River and Hammam Boughrara dam in Algeria, with chemical concentrations said to be 400 times above standards. Thousands of hectares of farmland are reportedly affected, according to information presented at a symposium in Tlemcen and reported by El Khabar.
Four hundred industrial units in Oujda, eastern Morocco, discharge waste into the Mouilah River, whose waters flow towards dams and farmland in Algeria. The concentration of chemical substances there is more than 400 times above international standards, according to Algerian daily El Khabar, which reported the findings presented in Tlemcen on Monday 26 October.
The pollution affects, in particular, the Mouilah River and the Hammam Boughrara dam, near the Algerian-Moroccan border, and has turned land into marshes. Thousands of farmers and several thousand hectares of farmland are reportedly affected, while groundwater depletion has also been reported at the Abadla dam in Béchar province.
These findings were presented at an international symposium on protecting transboundary waterways, attended by experts and researchers from 19 countries. The secretary-general of Tlemcen province described pollution of rivers and dams as a direct threat to Algeria’s food security, while the rector of the University of Tlemcen called for technological solutions to protect water resources to be examined.
The presentation comes after Morocco showcased its 2050 water plan, presented on 15 October at the World Water Forum in Rome.
