Characterization of bathing water on the Casablanca coast

• Published in: Advances in environmental sciences : international journal of the Bioflux Society 2020-08, Vol.12 (2), p.123-136
• Main Authors: Idali, Hanane, Fahde, Abdelilah, Schahrakane, Yassine, Rachidi, Abderrazzak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algae; Aquaculture; Bacteria; Bathing; Cadmium; Chemical industry; Coasts; Coliforms; Comparative analysis; Contamination; Dissolved oxygen; Exploitation; Heavy metals; Laboratories; Marinas; Marine aquaculture; Marine fish; Microbiological analysis; Mussels; Orthophosphate; Pollution; Power plants; Seasons; Thermal power; Thermal power plants; Tourism; Underwater; Water pollution; Zinc
• ISSN: 2066-7620; 2066-7647

The coast of Casablanca is located on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, it has sectors of human activities and economic activities that seek the coast location, as a preferential or necessary site: seaports, refining and chemical industry, modern thermal power stations, sea fishing, marine aquaculture, seaside tourism and marinas. The pursuit of these activities and their development require the persistence of a certain coastal balance. The definition of the coast will be limited to the area of land-sea contact and interaction between marine and continental effects. This space represents a precious and limited resource because it corresponds to this narrow zone of contact between the continental domain and the underwater world. Any abusive occupation results in the final consumption of this resource, without the possibility of reproduction. On the other hand the rational and light exploitation allows this space to perpetuate itself without losing its quality. The objective of this work is to assess the state of pollution of the Casablanca coast through different studies (physico-chemical, microbiological and determination of heavy metals) on different matrix (algae, water and mussels). We assessed the pollution status of bathing water on the Casablanca coast on five sites (Paloma, Zenata, Hank, Sidi Abd Rahman and Dar Bouazza) through different physico-chemical studies ( determination of nitrate, nitrite, orthophosphate, BOD5, dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH), microbiological (looking for coliforms, streptococci and clostridium) and determination of heavy metals by the analysis of three metallic elements (lead, cadmium and zinc) at the level of two species, animal (Mytilus edulis) and plant (Corallina mediterranea). The comparative analysis of the average levels found for the different studies showed that the contamination did not reach worrying levels except for the microbiological analysis which showed the presence of contamination of faecal origin.