Nador

The city of Nador belongs to the province of the same name in the Oriental region.¹ It lies on the Marchica lagoon, which covers 115 square kilometres and is separated from the Mediterranean by a 25-kilometre strip of coast.² Since 15 January 2005 the lagoon has been on the list of the Ramsar Convention under the name Sebkha Bou Areg, with 14,000 hectares.³

The Ramsar information sheet describes the lagoon as about 24 kilometres long and 7.5 kilometres wide, separated from the sea by sand dunes.⁴ It is a wintering area for migratory birds; breeding birds listed include the water rail, little tern, pied avocet and slender-billed gull. The sheet records 13 species of fish and nine species of molluscs, as well as farming, fishing, salt extraction and aquaculture with fish and oyster farming.⁵

The development of the lagoon was launched in 2008 by King Mohammed VI.⁶ Law no. 25-10 of 16 July 2010 created a dedicated development zone in the lagoon area and an agency for its planning and development.⁷ The first phase, the rehabilitation of the lagoon, cost 1.5 billion dirhams; it included a sewage treatment plant, a controlled landfill and a new channel to the sea, one kilometre long and 300 metres wide.⁸ The old opening was converted into a marina.⁹ Seven themed districts are planned around the lagoon;¹⁰ the development plan for the area was approved by a decree of 16 September 2026.¹¹

In the 2024 census Nador had 158,202 inhabitants; only Oujda has more in the region, and Nador accounts for 10.5 per cent of the Oriental's urban population.¹² Nador province had 565,987 inhabitants, 68.6 per cent of whom live in towns.¹³ In everyday life 81.0 per cent of the province's people speak Darija and 71.1 per cent Tarifit.¹⁴

The port of Nador lies in Beni Ansar, where the railway line also ends at Beni Ansar Port station.¹⁵ In 2022 it handled 3.8 million tonnes of goods, 69 per cent of them imports, including around one million tonnes of coal and petroleum coke and 513,777 tonnes of grain, as well as 540,454 passengers.¹⁶ Between 5 June and 15 September 2022 alone, 440,211 passengers and 112,054 vehicles passed through the port.¹⁷ The official national portal listed Nador–Almería and Nador–Sète as passenger routes.¹⁸

In the bay of Betoya, on the western side of Cap des Trois Fourches, the Nador West Med port and industrial complex is being built.¹⁹ Plans include a deep-water port for container handling, an energy hub for hydrocarbons, handling of bulk goods such as coal, and an industrial free zone next to the port. The public company Nador West Med is building the complex and received the management of the new port from the Agence Nationale des Ports under a concession.²⁰

The cape itself lies on the eastern edge of the Rif about 30 kilometres north of Nador and has been a Ramsar site of 5,640 hectares since 15 January 2005.²¹ Volcanic rock determines the chemistry of the coastal waters there. The species named in the information sheet include the loggerhead turtle, fin whale, Mediterranean monk seal and Audouin's gull.²²

The railway line from Taourirt to Nador is 117 kilometres long; the national portal put its cost at 1,776 million dirhams.²³ It opened in July 2009; in the city the trains stop at Nador Ville and Nador Sud stations.²⁴ Nador-El Aroui airport handled more than 1.05 million passengers in 2024, 3 per cent more than in 2023, when it passed the one-million mark for the first time.²⁵