Environmental Impact of Laayoune Plant’s Desalination and Brine Management: Challenges and Mitigation Measures

The region of Moroccan Sahara Laayoune is characterized by an arid climate, where water is scarce and more in demand. In this case, the desalination process offers many advantages such as the preservation of current freshwater reserves and the use of seawater as an unlimited source. Unfortunately, by using this technology there are rising concerns about possible adverse environmental impacts. This work presents a qualitative study of marine waters desalination plants in the Moroccan Sahara in Laayoune. The different compositions of the brines and offshore marine were characterized and analyzed where they are discharged. Furthermore, the different aspects of the environmental impacts of desalination have been deducted comparing them to the literature. The studied desalination plants product permeates with 45% of total dissolved solids. A major issue of desalination in Moroccan Sahara Laayoune is the co-produced waste called `brine' or 'reject' which has a high salinity along with chemical residuals and is discharged into the marine environment. Other issues include entrainment and entrapment of marine species, and heavy use of chemicals. The purpose of this study is to analyze the potential impacts of desalination, and brine treatment on the environment and suggest mitigation measures.