Earthquake Unleashes New Water Sources in Morocco’s Marrakech Region

For a month now, a stream of clear water has been flowing across the road connecting Taroudant to Marrakech, at an altitude of about 1,500 meters. "Usually, to have so much water, it has to rain a lot. But this flow, it’s thanks to the earthquake that it appeared. All of this is in the hands of Allah," explains Mohammed Mbarek, owner of a small grocery store located near the source, to France Info.

The September 8 earthquake is indeed the origin of the appearance of this geological phenomenon, assures Professor Hassan Ibouh, a professor of structural geology at the University of Marrakech. "The water that came out already existed in the mountain. It is stored in porous rocks. The cracks, fractures, and tears in the rocks are a space where it will be stored. And the earthquake released this water to the topographic surface," he details.

For a month now, these sources of pure water have been continuously flowing into the valley of the Tizi N’Test pass. But the inhabitants of this mountainous area used to droughts will unfortunately not be able to exploit these water sources due to the many material damage caused by the earthquake, regrets Driss Bouzid, chief of the Ighil Targ douar. The priority is the reconstruction of the agricultural terraces and the readaptation of the water irrigation circuits to the new flow.

At the same time as the earthquake has led to the appearance