Title : Vulnerability and impacts of the Hadjar Soud cement factory on water quality in the Oued El Kebir watershed (West of Skikda, Algeria)
Abstract :Factories and industrial companies have a vital and indispensable role in the economy and sustainable development, especially for those paid for development, but they have a vulnerability and a negative impact on the Oueds and on the environment in general. The Hadjar Soud cement factory, located in Bekkouche Lakhdar, Azzaba, Wilaya of Skikda, is considered one of the leading industrial companies for producing and manufacturing cement in northeast Algeria. Consequently, industrial discharges from the latter affect the quality of the waters of the Oued el Kebir watershed (west of Skikda), which is the main objective of this research, to characterize and thus determine the vulnerability and impact of pollution on this watershed. A physicochemical study of several parameters of the surface waters of this river was made based on simple random sampling where this cement factory varies these effluents in the latter. The samples were taken in February 2022. The results obtained show that the surface waters of the Oued El Kebir watershed are highly polluted and degraded by discharges from the Hadjar Soud Cement factory, and therefore, it is essential to install a treatment plant to treat the effluents of the latter before discharging them into the Oued El Kebir watershed.