The impact of the Oum Azza landfill on the quality of groundwater at the Rabat region (Morocco)

A 110 ha dump, located in the Akrach shallow aquifer area in Morocco, was studied in order to characterize the quality of groundwater around the landfill, to delineate the contaminated area and to determine the factors favouring the contamination of groundwater. This dump is located in the city of Oum Azza (15 km south from Rabat), (Map 1). between the Akrach River in the west and the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah Dam in the east. To assess groundwater pollution from this landfill, piezometric monitoring and Hydrochemical analyses were conducted on 22 wells. The results highlight a significant degradation in the groundwater quality, especially in the parts located in the direct vicinity downstream the dump. In the impacted areas, electrical conductivity was above 1100 mu S cm-1, bicarbonates were higher than 508 mg L-1, chlorides, sulphate, and nitrates contents were higher than 850, 200 and 1 mg L-1, respectively. In addition we found high cadmium (50 - 100 mu g L-1) and chromium (40 - 230 mu g L-1) contents, i.e. much higher than the WHO guidelines for drinking or irrigation water. A principal component analysis conducted on this dataset highlights the absence of a prevalent principal component (PC), with the variance distributed across many PCs. The mechanisms responsible for the chemical variance of the hydro system are therefore numerous and fairly balanced in terms of influence. Finally, a hierarchical classification brings out three groups of observations, each group corresponding to a level of pollution.