Jamal Stitou El Messari

Analysis of contamination hazard of surface water by the methodology of TECHNEAU: a case study from the dam 9 April 1947 in northern Morocco

Preventive protection of surface waters against pollution and the guarantee of the best quality water are the major challenges to provide a sustainable supply of drinking water for the future generations. In this article, we present a hazard mapping application for water contamination of the dam “9 April 1947” located in the northwest of Morocco. This study was motivated by the proliferation of many pollution sources in the study area knowing that the dam feeds the region of Tanger-Asilah that has over 3 million inhabitants. The methodology used was applied for the first time in the city of Freiburg-Ebnet in Germany under the TECHNEAU project funded by the European commission and based on weighting of the different sources of contamination according to three indices: the toxicity index, quantity index, and probability index. The multiplication of the three indices has given us a hazard index named HI varying between 0 and 120 depending on the harmfulness of hazard; the later index has been used to create the final contamination hazard map. The hazard map shows 65% of the watershed area is witnessing a very low danger, 22% of the watershed area is witnessing a low danger, 10% of the watershed area is witnessing a the high danger, and 3% of the watershed area is witnessing a moderate.