Assessment of the ecological status of the Oum Er-rabie River basin (Central Morocco) through physicochemical, bacteriological parameters and biotic indices.

In this work, the assessment of the ecological status of the Oum Er-rabie River basin was carried out by determining the physical-chemical, bacteriological and biological parameters. sampling Benthic macroinvertebrates and water were collected only once during the fourth seasons at the 31 stations upstream to downstream of the streams from spring 2018 to winter 2019. Physical-chemical quality was assessed from the Weighted Index (IP) based on 16 parameters (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, nitrites, Ammonium, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, turbidity, ortho phosphate, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulphate) and revealed an average to very poor quality in most stations. The microbiological quality, based on the assessment of the three parameters: fecal coliforms, total coliforms and fecal streptococcus, varies between, good and bad. The values of the biotic indices, Iberian Biological Monitoring Working Group Index (IBMWP), River Habitat Index (IHF) and River Quality Index (QBR), classify the waters of the various prospected stations as good quality waters for upstream stations (S2, S10, S12, S14, S15, S16) and in the medium to very bad quality category for other localities except for two stations (S27, S30) which are downstream but have good qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]