If there is one thorny issue that has recently disrupted the daily lives of the inhabitants of the city of Kenitra, it is the ‘black dust phenomenon’, a dark cloud of unknown origin that has become a ‘mystery’ over time for a population worried about its potential repercussions on their health and that of their children.
The ‘enigma’ came to light in early 2014 when residents of certain city districts began to notice a fine layer of black dust on window ledges and terraces, which they initially took for an ephemeral phenomenon destined to disappear with the changing weather.
But as days and months passed, this dust continued to settle, regardless of the weather, sparking concern among the population, civil society, and the competent authorities.
Faced with this environmental phenomenon, local civil society, including the ‘Al-Gharb Association for the Preservation of the Environment’, sounded the alarm and mobilized through a petition and a video posted online to urge the population to be cautious and vigilant, but above all to call on public authorities to intervene urgently to investigate the origin of this pollution, which threatens the population, particularly those suffering from respiratory diseases.
The Wilaya of the Gharb-Chrarda-Bni Hssen region logically invested itself in solving this enigma, and a commission composed of the relevant services was set up to determine the origin of the pollution.
Around twenty local industrial units were inspected in order to collect the necessary data to help locate the source of this pollution, according to the director of the Regional Observatory for Environment and Sustainable Development, Bouchra Sanae.
Some of these units, she explained in a statement to the MAP, were called to order to ensure that their discharges comply with the required standards and to adhere to the specifications of the environmental impact study.
Emission samples were also sent to the laboratory for analysis, in addition to the creation of three mobile stations to measure the degree of air pollution.
Given the persistence of the phenomenon, the commission increased its control operations and inspection tours, and its suspicions fell on illegal incineration sites for car bodies and tyres used to recover copper wire.
Several places in the city where these open-air incineration sites were found were combed through, and the individuals involved in these acts were arrested and prosecuted, according to the head of the environmental service at the Wilaya, Lhcen Ben Mhamdi, who also reported the organisation of a parallel awareness campaign for the population regarding the dangers of such acts and their non-compliance with environmental legal texts.
However, despite the actions taken to put an end to these practices, the black dust phenomenon has not disappeared, which prompted the commission to call on a specialised laboratory to carry out analyses of this dust, in addition to the creation of a permanent commission for the control of industrial units.
In this context, emphasises the head of the regional environmental service, Leila Founty, the intermittent appearance of the ‘black smoke’ prompted the relevant services to set up three additional air quality monitoring stations, the closure of four illegal public dumps, and the creation of new dumps in Mahdi, Souk Larbaa, Sidi Taybi, and Moulay Bousselham, in addition to the control of traditional Hammams to encourage them to respect environmental rules.
Ms. Founty welcomed, in this context, the involvement of the Ministry Delegate in charge of the Environment in all decisions and initiatives taken to seek tangible results in the fight against this phenomenon.
For his part, Maati Madani, from the Al-Gharb Association for the Preservation of the Environment, indicated that despite a remarkable decrease in the rate of the ‘famous’ black dust recently, doubts still linger around certain polluting units, including the thermal power plant that uses industrial fuel.
He also noted that the results of the analyses from the mobile laboratory set up to measure the degree of pollution of the black smoke, which the authorities deemed ‘reassuring’, ‘are not based on precise technical and scientific data’ that respect international standards in the matter.
Mr. Madani also emphasised the need to give increased importance to green spaces in all urban planning schemes, with the aim of promoting the breathing of fresh air.
Indeed, according to a recent global study on the environment, air pollutants cause the death of more than one million people per year and numerous serious illnesses, as well as the loss of more than 5,000 million dollars per year due to the impact of air pollution on crops and agricultural plants.
