By IPS Correspondents
CASABLANCA, Nov 24 2006 (IPS)

Ain Tizgha 50 km east of Casablanca could not hope to stop any advance from the Sahara desert. But it could – if the government helped – stop the dust that is smothering the region.

That dust is arising from nine large stone quarries, and it is destroying the environment and the livelihood of much of the population of half a million in the region.

The quarries in Benslimane province are damaging just about everything here – forest, water sources, people, livestock and fauna.

There is a good deal of forest to be saved here. “Forests make up 54,392 hectares, which is nearly a quarter of the whole area of the province,” Essaid Hsainou, head of the forests and water provincial service told IPS.

A vital tree in Benslimane forests is the Thuja that covers about 13,000 hectares. Leaves from this tree are known to have medicinal property and are often used to aid childbirth.

Such natural treasures are now being damaged by the massive clouds of dust produced night and day from the quarries.

”All animals and birds have migrated from the forest zone near the quarries,” Larbi Chaoui, president of the independent Douar lakdia Association for Rural Development (DLARD) told IPS. Several complaints have been sent to the forests and water office.

Essaid Hsainou told IPS that all violations of law “are reported by our agents and transferred to our legal department who carry out the needful proceedings.” These proceedings have not, however, stopped the destruction of natural resources, and the impact on humans and nature is getting stronger.

Bouchaib Bennasser, a farmer who owns six hectares, will not cultivate his fields this year.

“Last year all my agriculture was destroyed by these clouds of dust,” he told IPS, pointing to a stone quarry close to his land and his family house. “I took bank credit last year but I could not pay it because all my agriculture was destroyed.”

Subterranean water resources are also being damaged. The well that Benasser dug in 1980 is nearly empty.

Quarry owners dig too deep to extract stones, and they reach subterranean water flows, Benasser said. Water is being drained away through the quarries, he said.

As wells dry up, people in his neighbourhood have to travel more than 20 km to get drinking water. Or, they must pay a van owner to bring it to them.

And that water is not good enough. “We cannot drink this water. It is polluted by dust,” Benasser said.

The Oued Cherate river flowing through the region ”is completely polluted because of industrial waste thrown in it,” Larbi Chaoui said.

Local resident Tawzar Bricha said she is suffering from respiratory complications. ”I must see a doctor at least three times each month,” she told IPS. “Doctors say the dust is coming from the stone quarries.”

The dust can be a killer. “It leads to several lung diseases. It (dust of this kind) is the second biggest cause of cancer in Morocco after cigarettes,” local doctor Ahmed Kouza told IPS.

The first symptoms are usually “respiratory troubles that may be unperceived by patients. Within five to seven years this leads to lung cancer because the dust contains a carcinogenic substance,” Dr. Kouza said.

Respiratory troubles are not the only health complication that inhabitants are suffering. “All children here have eye diseases,” resident Abderrazak el-Yagoubi said.

“Children can no more play outside their houses. They are imprisoned because if ever they go out they catch eyes infections,” said Bouchaib Benasser. Dr Kouza said the dust leads to “chronic conjunctivitis which is a chronic inflammation of eyelids.”

Livestock is also suffering the consequences. ”Last summer I lost two calves and a sheep,” Tawzar’s husband Lagoubi Mohamed Lefkih said. “The veterinary doctor said they all died of a lung disease because of dust.”

Continuing to live like this is not an option, says Chaoui. “Either they move inhabitants or they move the quarries.”

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