Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

In the 21st century one of the major interests in the world is the access of a fast growing population to water resources in a sufficient quality and quantity. This situation gets more frequent and graver because of the hydrological consequences of climate change. In Morocco since several years, dry periods have occurred repeatedly and they became characteristic for the regional climate. Therefore the lack of water got a major problem. For the remediation of this situation, the reuse of wastewater is one of the priorities in the national sewage treatment plan of 2005 [2].
On the level of the metropolitan area of Grand Casablanca, water is a major challenge for the sustainable development because the region is characterised by an arid climate with only modest resources of water, which have an irregular occurrence in time and area and always a low quality. 98 % of the drinking water of this metropolis which sums up to over (170 million m³ per year has to be imported from other regions (Bouregreg in the North and Oum Er Rbia in the South) both with a distance of about 80 km).
The produced industrial and domestic wastewater is estimated with a total amount of 500,000 m³/d which are rejected into the sea without treatment. Only 60% of the wastewater is currently primarily treated by a grid at the El Hank station and subsequently emitted into the sea via a 3.6 km pipeline.
Since the year 2008, this situation has begun to change in the peri-urban area of Casablanca, because many wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are currently under construction :
- The WWTP of the airport Mohammed V which is constructed by the national airport agency (ONDA). It will treat 4,000 m³/d of municipal wastewater and 1,500 m³/d of industrial wastewater in separate lines.
- The WWTP of the country town of Deroua which is constructed by the autonomous regional water and electricity distribution group (régie autonome de distribution d’eau et d’électricité de la Chaouia, RADEEC) for capacity 2,000 m³/d of municipal wastewater.
- The WWTP of the country town Mediouna which is constructed by the water and energy public private partnership of Casablanca (Lyonnaise des eaux de Casablanca, Lydec) to treat 4,000 m³/d of municipal wastewater. This plant is going to be the first Membrane Bioreactor System in Morocco.
Other WWTPs are planned by the Lydec at Tet Mellil/Sidi Hajjaj with 1,500 to 2,000 m³/d. In the year 2015-2020 there will be about 10,000 m³/d of treated municipal wastewater available in the Northeast peri-urban area of Grand Casablanca. These sums up to 3.5 million m³/year which could be used to irrigate 1,200 to 1,500 ha of agriculture. This reuse in agriculture will result in a less severe impact on the environment and will foster the economic development in the region.