The Idriss I Dam, also known as the Idriss the First Dam, is a gravity dam on the Inaouen River

Inaouen River

The Inaouen River is a watercourse in Morocco that is tributary to the Sebou River. The river rises in the Middle Atlas mountain range. A major dam, the Idriss I was constructed on the Inaouen River in the year 1973.-Natural history:...

, a tributary of the Sebou River

Sebou River

Sebou is a river in northern Morocco. The river is 458 kilometres long and has an average water flow of 137 m3/s, which makes it the largest North African river by volume. The source is in the Middle Atlas mountains. It passes near the city of Fes and discharges to the Atlantic Ocean in Mehdia...

. The dam is situated in the Gharb

Gharb

Għarb is a village located at the westernmost point of the island of Gozo, Malta, with a population of 1,160 people . It started life as a small hamlet centuries ago. You can see its ancient roots in the centre of the village where some houses have fine examples of decorated stone balconies...

 basin and is located 27 km (17 mi) northeast of Fes

Fes

Fes or Fez is the second largest city of Morocco, after Casablanca, with a population of approximately 1 million . It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region....

 in Taounate Province, Morocco. The dam serves to provide irrigation for 72300 ha (178,657 acre) of land and its power plant generates 66 GWh of electricity annually. It is named after Idriss I It has come under criticism since it failed to deliver irrigation to the projected number of acres and it has also denied water use to historical downstream agricultural and residential users.

Environmental issues

A number of water pollutants enter the Sebou River and its tributaries, notably including pesticide

Pesticide

Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...

s and fertilisers from agricultural runoff

Surface runoff

Surface runoff is the water flow that occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water from rain, meltwater, or other sources flows over the land. This is a major component of the water cycle. Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a channel is also called a nonpoint source...

 and untreated sewage

Sewage

Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...

 from towns along the river. In the upper parts of the watershed within the Middle Atlas is the prehistoric range of the endangered primate

Primate

A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...

 Barbary macaque

Barbary Macaque

The Barbary Macaque , or Common macaque, is a macaque with no tail. Found in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria and Morocco with a small population, of unknown origin, in Gibraltar, the Barbary Macaque is one of the best-known Old World monkey species. Besides humans, they are the only primates that...

, which animal prehistorically had a much larger range in North Africa.