MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“Since mid-June, thousands of dead fish have been rotting along the banks of the Moulouya River, in north-east Morocco. While tests are being carried out to establish the cause of death, environmental activists are blaming a local sugar refinery that they accuse of ‘environmental crimes.’

After residents notified local environmental groups of the situation, these groups formed a collective called the ‘North Moroccan Green Platform’ to shed light on the problem. The collective points out that the river’s estuary is classified as a protected site of biological and ecological interest, and that its fauna risks extinction. In Oriental, a north-eastern region of Morocco, dead fish litter the river’s shores for dozens of kilometres, as several videos show.

The environmentalists put the blame on the sugar refinery Sucrafor. The refinery is part of the Moroccan group Cosumar, which has a monopoly on Morocco’s national sugar production. This is not the first time that the company has been blamed for contaminating the Moulouya River. In the 1980s and 1990s, environmentalists said Sucrafor had released more waste water into the river than was legally allowed.

This new scandal comes just one month after the new Moroccan constitution was adopted. Article 35 of the constitution stipulates that the state guarantees all citizens the ‘right to water, a clean environment and sustainable development.'” Read more.