Hazardous Waste in the Medinas (Historic Centres) of Morocco

Presented at the World Conference on Hazardous Wastes in Budapest in October 1987, this contribution analyses the specific and often overlooked problem of hazardous waste generated in Moroccan medinas — historic urban cores housing a dense artisanal and residential fabric whose narrow lanes (derbs) are unsuited to conventional collection systems. The author explains how the colonial dual urbanism policy neglected the environmental dimension of the medinas in favour of architectural heritage preservation, leaving growing waste collection and evacuation problems unaddressed. The analysis demonstrates that traditional artisanal activities (tanneries, dyeworks, metal workshops, bread ovens) generate hazardous liquid, solid, and gaseous effluents whose treatment remains largely informal for want of adapted infrastructure and specific regulation. The author recommends an integrated policy combining urban rehabilitation, modernisation of artisanal processes towards clean technologies, adaptation of collection systems to the morphological constraints of medinas, and the development of a specific regulatory framework for hazardous waste in historic urban contexts.