The contribution to hydrogeological and hydrochemical knowledge of the aquifers in the East side of Bouhachem area (Tetouan, Morocco).

Abstract

Water is much more than just a human need; it is the most vital element for life [9]. It has become a strategic global issue, the management of which must imperatively integrate itself into a political perspective of sustainable development. Some say it will be, in the third millennium, an issue of wars as oil has been and still is today [2,11]. The water reserves per capita, which border already the threshold of the stress with 1000 m3/hab/yr, would be in 2020 around 500 m3/hab/yr. [1]. Groundwater is the largest and most important water resource in Africa [13,14]. It is often more reliable, in closer proximity to users, less vulnerable to pollution, and more resilient to climate variability than surface water [12,13]. In this context, Morocco is a country which relatively has an important water resources. It profits indeed from many natural potentialities as mountainous water tower with broad spaces of infiltration with tops covered by snow, and important underground layers. The water resources exploited by the population of the study area are starting to be exceeded by the requests and are very unequally distributed between the communes. This justifies the importance of water as a paramount element for the socio-economic development of an area and increases the interest of a hydrogeological, hydro geochemical and bacteriological knowledge of the sources of water. It is in this general context that the present study is made. Its principal goal is the contribution to the hydrogeologic and hydrochimic knowledge of the water of the Jebel Bouhachem flyschs nappes. This is based on: the hydro-climatic study of the area.  the inventory of water sources and the study of their relationships with the detrital formations and the neighbouring formations.  the study of water chemical facies characteristics and water"s quality of the aquifers in the area. Geographical and socio-economic characteristics of the study areaOf a surface of 8000 ha, of which 40 to 50% belongs to the forest field, the Bouhachem area is located at the north of Morocco, in the northern Rif between the following Lambert coordinates (X Min = 486000m and X Max =