The Environmental Problem of Olive Mill Waste Water in Morocco: Data Analysis and Characterization

This work proposes a comparative study between several provinces in the region of Marrakech Safi concerning the pollution generated by the industrial units of crushing olives, in particular the volume of olive mill wate water (OMWW) and the polluting load. A physicochemical and bacteriological characterization of the OMWW issues from different industrial olive crushing units was also carried out, the result found showed a high polluting power of the OMWW that differs from one unit to another depending on the mode of crushing of the olive, Indeed, the OMWW are very loaded with polyphenols and organic matter. This effluent also has an acidic pH due to the presence of organic acids (phenolic acids, fatty acids). The high electrical conductivity of the OMWW is due to the presence of natural mineral salts and salts used to preserve olives until grinding such as Na⁺, Cl^– and Ca²⁺ …. A physicochemical and bacteriological characterization of some wells downstream of the industrial units have also realized to study the impact of OMWW on ground water quality, it was found that most of the wells downstream of the oil mills concerned are of good quality.