The Idriss I Dam, also known as the Idriss the First Dam, is a

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...

on the Inaouen River, a tributary of the Sebou River. The dam is situated in the Gharb Basin and is located northeast of Fes in

Taza Taza () is a city in northern Morocco occupying the corridor between the Rif mountains and Middle Atlas mountains, about 120 km east of Fez and 150 km south of Al Hoceima. It recorded a population of 148,406 in the 2019 Moroccan ...

and Taounate Province,

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. The dam serves to provide irrigation water for of land and its power plant generates 66 GWh of electricity annually. It is named after Idriss I. It has faced criticism since it failed to deliver irrigation to the projected number of acres and it has also denied water use to historical downstream agricultural and residential users.

Environmental issues

A number of

water pollutant Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. W ...

s enter the Sebou River and its tributaries, notably including

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all p ...

s and fertilisers from agricultural runoff and untreated

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewerage, sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged fro ...

from towns along the river. In the upper parts of the watershed within the Middle Atlas is the prehistoric range of the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

Barbary macaque The Barbary macaque (''Macaca sylvanus''), also known as Barbary ape, is a macaque species native to the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, along with a small introduced population in Gibraltar. It is the type species of the genus ' ...

, which animal

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

ally had a much larger range in North Africa.C. Michael Hogan. 2008

References

Bibliography

{{commons category * Allan M. Findlay. 1994. ''The Arab world'' * C. Michael Hogan. 2008
''Barbary Macaque: Macaca sylvanus'', GlobalTwitcher.com
* Michele L. Thieme. 2005. ''Freshwater ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar: a conservation assessment'' 431 pages Dams completed in 1973 Energy infrastructure completed in 1978 Dams in Morocco Hydroelectric power stations in Morocco Gravity dams 20th-century architecture in Morocco

Environmental issues

See also

References

Bibliography