INBO - Newsletter

43 INBO Newsletter n° 27 - May 2019 The Mediterranean and Middle East Morocco The Boudenib-Errachidia catch- ment area is located in southeastern Morocco. It is limited to the east by the Bechar Basin, to the south by Hamada Guir and to the west by the Paleozoic outcrops of Anti-Atlas. The Boudenib-Errachidia basin covers an area of approximately 43,819 Km², and experiences very irregular rainfall that is often occasional, seasonal, sporadic, unsatisfactory to meet the immediate needs of the people and plant ecosystems. The current growing socio-economic demands of the region call for other well-reasoned investigations, coupled with the creation of modern farms such as those of date palms, due to their particular adaptation to this climate. Their objectives are to ensure stable employment, limitation of rural exo- dus, the reclamation of marginalized lands, the fight against desertification and the economic reinforcement of the Draa-Tafilat region. The water potential of the site in terms of quality and quantity with soils of clay-silty texture convenient for agri- culture in arid areas, is sufficient enough to attract investors to plant in these lands, returning them to the eth- nic community of ksar sehli caïda and the rural settlement of the Nâam Wadi. The floods coming from Ziz and Guir Wadis, are used by the oasis inhab- itants to irrigate their fields or fatten them with alluvium. They also contain significant surface water resources from the pre-Saharan zone. These floods sometimes threaten the young Oasis, located at an altitude of 1000 m with a flat morphology. This danger is lessened by the construc- tion of dams: e.g. Hassan Addakhil and kadoussa dams, in compliance with the Moroccan policy and its economic plan for the improvement of the agri- cultural sector. Ridouane SADKI S/C de Mohamed EL WARTITI Mohammed V University Faculty of Sciences Rabat-Agdal r.sadki@hotmail.fr www.fsr.ac.ma “Oman Humanitarian Desalination Challenge” MEDRC Water Research and The Research Council recently launched (March 7 th , 2018) a major new initiative in water research, the “Oman Humani- tarian Desalination Challenge”. It is a project that looks to deliver a hand-held, stand-alone, low-cost, desalination device suitable for short- term use and rapid deployment in the event of a humanitarian crises. Such a device would revolutionize humanita­ rian emergency response efforts in the aftermath of natural disasters. Access to clean fresh water during and after natural disasters such as earth- quakes, tsunamis or floods is critical to health and survival. There is no sole device to solving the problem of water scarcity following a humanitarian crisis. Current solutions range from placing large scale water treatment units onsite or transporting massive quantities of bottled water up to distributing water purification devices or tablets. None of these is ideal when a rapid humanitarian response is required. Water purification devices for instance can be effective short-term solutions in an emergency situation but are only capable of filtering out waterborne bac- teria and parasites, they do not rid con- taminated water of chemicals, viruses and salt water. This is the shortfall that the Oman Humanitarian Desalination Challenge seeks to address. An effective humanitarian emergency response in this instance would be for first responders to rapidly deploy a device that would enable to easily and quickly, without need of electric power, turn the salty water into drinking water, until rescue could arrive. No such product exists on the market today. Scaling down the desalination plant technologies into a hand held, com- mercially viable product that meets the design criteria of this challenge will be no easy feat. The price of the project ($700,000) reflects the importance of the challenge. The Oman Humanitarian Desalina- tion Challenge will run for a period of 5 years. This timeline will allow anyone to develop a device to compete for the Challenge Prize. MEDRC has setup a globally representative international panel of experts to develop the Chal- lenge Prize criteria and form the judg- ing panel, made up of representatives from the funding entities and inter- nationally renowned experts in their fields. Elsa ANDREWS MEDRC Water Research elsa@medrc.org www.medrc.org Valorization of the Boudenib-Errachidia oasis: a good example to consider in the policy of advanced regionalization in Morocco Sultanate of Oman MEDRC The Boudenib-Errachidia catchment area