Smart water: An innovative approach to integrated water management at the Faculty of Sciences Ben M’sick (Casablanca, Morocco) in the face of water stress

Abstract

The integrated management of water resources at the level of various human activities is today imperative for individuals and organizations. This study investigates the possibilities of applying a responsible and sustainable water management approach at the Ben M’sik Faculty of Sciences (FSBM) in Casablanca through rainwater collection/reclamation, groundwater exploitation and decentralized treatment/internal wastewater reuse. To this end, physicochemical characterization of these three types of water was carried out, with preliminary results showing that the wastewater quality complied with the discharge limits recommended by Lydec for all the parameters determined, except for Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total suspended solids (TSS), with average values for COD, BOD5, and TSS of around 1010.12 mg L -1, 87.27 mg L-1 and 370.48 mg L-1 respectively. In parallel, average values for COD/BOD5 (33.19), TSS/BOD5 (6.03) and oxidizable matter (360.72 mg L-1) revealed that these wastewaters are heterogeneous and poorly biodegradable. As for rainwater and groundwater, the results show that they comply with the quality grid for water intended for irrigation, except for chloride (715.23 to 884.72 mg L-1) and nitrate for groundwater (61.45).