87.68% of Bathing Water in Moroccan Beaches Complies with Microbiological Quality Standards
Rabat - More than 87% of bathing water in Moroccan beaches complies with microbiological quality standards for the period 2016-2019, said on Monday the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Environment (Department of Environment) in its report on the national program for monitoring the quality of beaches' bathing water and sand in the Kingdom (PNSQEB) for the year 2020. The report, run by the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environment Protection, and its results were presented at a remote press conference. It indicates that out of 461 stations programmed to monitor the quality of bathing water, 422 stations have a sufficient number of samples to carry out the classification process according to the new Moroccan standard (199.7.03 NM), and therefore 370 monitoring stations (or 87.68%) were evaluated with microbiological quality in accordance with the new standard.
The remaining 52 stations (12.32%) do not comply with these standards during the current season, due to pollution mainly due to wastewater and the high concentration of bathers, combined with inadequate sanitation infrastructure and climate change, particularly with regard to the sometimes polluted rainwater which reaches the beaches directly via rivers. Concerning the monitoring of the quality of beach sand, the report said that marine litter on beaches is characterized by the preponderance of the "Plastic/polystyrene" category, which represents alone a rate of 84% of all sea waste at the national level. In this regard, the report pointed out that two pilot projects were also carried out, in partnership with two associations operating on the Mediterranean: the first concerns the "Adopt a Beach" project with the AESVT/section of Tangier, which concerned the characterization of waste at 4 Mediterranean beaches, while the second concerns the "Waste Fishing" project with the divers association "Abtal Fnideq", which took place at the fishing port of Fnideq. With regard to the "Clean Beaches" and "Blue Flag" programs, the monitoring data from this program also constitute sources of information for the evaluation of candidate beaches for the "Blue Flag" eco-label, by the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environment Protection, whose flag was raised in 2019 on 21 beaches.
The remaining 52 stations (12.32%) do not comply with these standards during the current season, due to pollution mainly due to wastewater and the high concentration of bathers, combined with inadequate sanitation infrastructure and climate change, particularly with regard to the sometimes polluted rainwater which reaches the beaches directly via rivers. Concerning the monitoring of the quality of beach sand, the report said that marine litter on beaches is characterized by the preponderance of the "Plastic/polystyrene" category, which represents alone a rate of 84% of all sea waste at the national level. In this regard, the report pointed out that two pilot projects were also carried out, in partnership with two associations operating on the Mediterranean: the first concerns the "Adopt a Beach" project with the AESVT/section of Tangier, which concerned the characterization of waste at 4 Mediterranean beaches, while the second concerns the "Waste Fishing" project with the divers association "Abtal Fnideq", which took place at the fishing port of Fnideq. With regard to the "Clean Beaches" and "Blue Flag" programs, the monitoring data from this program also constitute sources of information for the evaluation of candidate beaches for the "Blue Flag" eco-label, by the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environment Protection, whose flag was raised in 2019 on 21 beaches.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/87-68-of-Bathin...