• Energy Research

Wastewater and human excreta are threatening the quality of groundwater and watercourses in rural areas of Morocco. The new sanitation approach that has advantage to solve the problems of pathogens of human waste at source and offering the possibility of reusing them after treatment is called Ecological Sanitation (EcoSan) could be an alternative solution to the conventional one. It is in this perspective that our study made an investigation on economic, ecological, sustainable sanitation techniques adapted to the Moroccan context. Indeed, a survey was carried out at Dayet Ifrah village to assess the population appreciation of the EcoSan structures installed. Survey results showed that these structures have been generally accepted by almost all users and non-users (95%). On the other hand, a pilot-scale system composed by two types of filters (vertical constructed wetland and vertical Multi-Soil-Layering) have been installed in order to treat domestic wastewater coming from a single household and their performance was evaluated. The filters showed good performance to remove organic pollution (> 84.5%) and orthophosphate (> 68%). The reduction of ammonium were 84.5% and 35.3% for vertical Multi-Soil-Layering and vertical constructed wetland, respectively. The quality of the wastewater treated was evaluated in accordance with the standard of the rejection limit value adopted by Morocco.

The impact of climate factors on the epidemiology of diseases in general and leishmaniasis in particular continues to be a subject of research and analysis. Changes in climatic parameters contribute to the creation of ecological conditions favorable to the multiplication of the vectors of certain diseases. With this in mind, this study presents an entomological survey conducted in Meknes prefecture and the study of the link between the abundance of sandflies, an indicator of the risk of leishmaniasis in a given area, and the climatic factors. Monthly trapping of this fauna was carried out during a year from March 2016 until April 2017 using adhesive traps. Climatic data from the region were used to determine the effect of climate on the distribution of sandflies. A total of 941 leishmaniasis vector specimens were captured. The dominant species is Ph. sergenti (73.32), followed by Ph. longicuspis (8.25%), then Ph. perniciosus (7.94%) and Ph. papatasi (6.31%). The sex ratio study showed that males are more abundant than females for all species. The seasonal fluctuation is bimodal with two peaks, the first in July and the second in September. The results show a positive correlation between temperature and abundance of sandflies (r = 0.99) and a negative correlation with humidity and precipitation with a correlation coefficient of r = −0.87 and r = −0.72. Indeed, the medium-term climatological forecasts are essential tools to develop a warning system for leishmaniasis.