Assessment of groundwater quality in Khouribga region, Morocco

The Khouribga region is world widely known by the activity of OCP Group. The first phosphate basin is the Basin of OuledAbdoun which can be the source of groundwater contamination of the wells in the region and especially the douars located near the factory. This contamination causes health problems for the population, animals and the environment degradation as a whole for the region. The region is constituted by several Douars. But, this study was done only in the areas near the locations of OuledAbdoun phosphate exploitation, Ouled Azouz, Fassis, Fokra, Ouled Brahim, Gufaf, Lhamri, and BNI Amir, where the dwellers of these douars use wells water as the main drinking water. In a physico-chemical quality control of the groundwater in the region of Khouribga. Multiple analyzes were performed on 14 elements of each of the 90 samples collected from the 90 wells, 10 wells for each Douar. These analyzes are carried out at the laboratory of Hydrology in National Institute of Hygiene of Rabat (NIHR). These analyzes have been treated by the chemical Hydro method which uses Piper and Scholer-Berkallof diagram to determine the type of facies that exists in the region, and by the ACP statistical method using the software XLSTAT to know the level of correlation between the different elements dissolved in the studied groundwater.The groundwater of this region are characterized by heterogeneity of hydro-chemical facies. The diagram of Piper shows the dominance of two types of chemical facies, a calcium sulfate magnesian and and another calcium bicarbonate magnesian. The principal components analysis (PCA) has allowed corroborating the results obtained by the physico-chemical analysis.