ERG CHEBBI AQUIFER

LOCALIZATION

Erg Chebbi is located southest of Morocco, near the Algerian border. This area can be considered as a unique system because of its extreme fragile environment and its beautiful landscape.*Erg Chebbi is a line of 158 Km with sand, dunes and aquifers. It is an area protected by the UNESCO because of the dunes and many animal species

Nowadays there are some little villages. In ancient these towns were points of supplies for traders caravans and until

1970 their livehood was herding and agriculture. In the seventies the life changes with the tourism development and

in 2004 a road was set up. Now there are 56 hotels in 30

km. *

This increase in population and tourism and the greater exploitation of the resources has led to a progressive increase of desertification,

the lowering of the water table and the mobilization of the sands which have covered some towns and agriculture areas.

Hassilabied is a little town of 177 families located near the erg Chebbi aquifer from which they take the water. There is a state channel but the price of water is so expensive they can not afford it.The flow of uncontrolled tourism is driving to the contamination of the reserve of water in erg Chebbi and producing an amount of waste that endanger the natural balance of the aquifer.

The experienceThe workshop was made with the participation of the Alcalá students and young students from Hassilabied.

The first term of the workshop consisted in an approach to the water cycle and some explanations about the local area features: climate, precipitations in order to clarify the resources.

After the theoric lecture, the students started with hands on experiences. The aim was to confirm the fresh water conditions in the wells.The students used simple outside sets for the tests.

The results showed a high bacteriological contamination and high salt levels in the water samples from every well in the village. As you go more away from

the village, to the dunes wells, fresh water conditions were much better.

CONCLUSSION

These problems could be solved with actions like:-Setting up a sewerage.-Creation and management of a dump appropriate to the needs of the population.-Conservation of fragile areas of the environment and development of a sustainable tourism, since it is an important source of income for much of the population.-Teach the population to manage properly their resources.

María Eugenia Moya is one of the Alcalá College teachers who leads this project.