Appropriate Wastewater Treatment and Reuse in Morocco – Boujad: A Case Study

Reuse of wastewater for crop irrigation is essential to sustain agricultural growth in a country such as Morocco where water resources are scarce due to the hot, arid climate. However few towns in Morocco have sewage treatment facilities and reuse with untreated wastewater is therefore widespread, and the public health risks from excreta related disease high. A suitable treatment system to provide safe water for irrigation is the use of waste stabilisation ponds, which provide an effluent high in microbiological quality and also high in fertilizer value due to the large amounts of algae which are normally discharged. It was therefore decided to implement an integrated waste stabilisation pond, effluent reuse system as a demonstration scheme of the advantages, both in terms of improved crop productivity and public health of the local community. The town of Boujad in Kouribga Province was selected as a suitable site and this paper describes the background to the development.