Microbiological Variations in Leachates from the Fez Controlled Landfill between the Post-COVID19 and Covid19 Periods (Morocco)

Abstract

The aim of this work is to gain a better understanding of the bacterial load in the leachate from the controlled landfill in Fez by following a temporal evolution during the year 2021 just after the Covid19 pandemic and during the year 2020 marked by the Corvid19 period. The germs studied were total coliforms (TC), faecal coliforms (FC), faecal enterococci (FE), total aerobic mesophilic flora (AMF), staphylococci (Staph) and salmonella. The results show that the landfill has the highest concentration of all germs in the year 2021. This bacterial load intensifies in summer, as the number of residents has increased with the arrival of tourists, resulting in an increase in waste tonnage and a change in the quality of the leachate. In 2020, the citizens of the city of Fez were confined because of the COVID19 pandemic, tourism was limited in space and time which limited the tonnage of waste and influenced the bacterial load. These results revealed the poor microbiological quality of this leachate. The increase in germ concentrations during the summer season has an effect of evaporation of this leachate, which leads to an increase in the bacterial concentration. It is therefore urgent to properly manage this leachate.