Moulouya River

The river was historically known as Malva (Anglicized: Malve), Malua, Malvam, Mulva, Mulucha, or Molochath flumen, the names possibly related to the Semitic root melach or malach, meaning "salt". Maurice Besnier suggested that the lower parts of the river were used for salt production, but no material confirmation has been found.^[3][4]

From the end of the fourth to the beginning of the third centuries BC, the Mulucha formed the boundary between the Kingdom of the Mauri to the west and the Kingdom of the Masaesylli to the east.^[5] Mentioned as Mulucha by Titus Livius (also known as Livy).^[6][7]

In the Historia Brittonum (c. 828) it appears as the River Malvam, along the legendary route of the Scoti from Egypt to Hispania.^[8] In Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136), Brutus of Troy follows a similar route from Leogecia, adding encounters with pirates, raids in Mauretania, and sirens at the Pillars of Hercules, passing the River Malvam before entering Mauretania.^[9]

The Moulouya River formed the eastern border of the Rif Republic in the 1920s, a small part of Morocco containing important cities like Saïdia and Oujda lying to the east, between the Moulouya and the border with Algeria. Until 1956 the river also formed the eastern border of the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco.^{[citation needed]}

Before French colonisation, the Moulouya River was considered as the border between Regency of Algiers and the dynasties that controlled Morocco.^[10][11] A battle between the Algerians and the Alawites took place in 1692 at the ford of this river.

The illusionary Martian canals were given names of mythical and real rivers, including one named the "Malva" after the River Malvam.

The Moulouya receives domestic wastewater from nearby populations and agricultural pollutants originating in the upper valley of its headwaters.^[12] In mid-2011, thousands of fish were found dead along the river, prompting environmental groups to blame pollution from the nearby Sucrafor sugar refinery, part of the Cosumar group, which had previously faced similar accusations in the 1980s and 1990s. The North Moroccan Green Platform reported black, foul-smelling water near Zaio, and farmers said livestock died after drinking from the river.^[13]