Morocco’s Beach Quality Report Reveals Unsafe Swimming Areas

Oued Merzeg, located in the province of Nouacer, is at the top of the list of the most polluted beaches in the Kingdom, according to the 2019 National Report of the State Secretariat for Sustainable Development on the quality of bathing waters. This will be followed by Jbila III and Aïn Atiq, which are respectively located in the prefectures of Tanger-Asilah and Skhirat-Témara, and Oued Merzeg, in the province of Nouacer.

To carry out the survey, the National Laboratory for Studies and Pollution Monitoring (LNESP) targeted 169 beaches, spread over 9 coastal regions.

According to the report, the evaluation of bathing waters focused on the search for microbiological parameters, fecal coliforms (Escherichia coli) and fecal streptococci (intestinal enterococci), in accordance with the national standard in this area (NM 03.7.200), transposed from the European directive (76/160/EEC) and the WHO/UNEP guidelines.

Out of 445 sampling stations, 98.43% were declared to be of compliant microbiological quality, against 1.57% non-compliant, the report specifies. The non-compliance of the 7 stations is explained by the fact that these beaches "are influenced by the discharge of wastewater and/or the high concentration of bathers, combined with the lack of sanitation infrastructure".