In Tunisia, fresh water reserves are dwindling leading to rationing

The water no longer flows at night in Mégrine, in the southern suburbs of Tunis

In Tunisia, fresh water reserves are dwindling leading to rationing

The water no longer flows at night in Mégrine, in the southern suburbs of Tunis. Rationing has been going on for weeks, but Chiheb Ben Brahim and his family are coping with it. “We got into the habit of putting a bucket in the toilet that I fill in the afternoon and everyone has their bottle for the night. That's more than enough, "says the retiree from the tourism sector who lives with his wife, children and mother-in-law.

Greater Tunis is not the only region concerned. To respond "to the imbalance recorded between supply and demand (...) due to the shortage of water resources and the persistence of drought for consecutive years", the National Company for the Exploitation and Distribution of Water (Sonede ) introduced on March 31 a generalized system of quotas and cuts. Rations justified, according to the public company, by the low level of filling – no more than 30% on average – of the thirty dams in the country

Located 70 kilometers from Mégrine and the tap of Chiheb Ben Brahim, the brawl of Sidi Salem previously housed the largest reserve of fresh water in Tunisia. This concrete megastructure, inaugurated in the early 1980s, was built on the Oued Medjerda, a river that has its source in the Algerian Atlas and flows into the Mediterranean Sea north of the Tunisian capital. At the start of spring, its occupancy reached the historically low rate of 16%.

On the banks of the reservoir, the blue of the water has given way to the color of the arid dust. The bowl now looks like a bathtub that has been drained too much. "See the grove up there?" Before, the water came all the way there, and where we are now there was 5 to 6 meters of water. I've never seen that," says Anis Gammar, walking lightly.

"The dilapidated state of infrastructure"

Farmer and manager of a campsite, the 40-year-old always has his eye on the weather. In 2022, the country experienced the driest autumn since 1950 after one of the hottest summers on record. But “it happened before and we still had water. It's also a question of management," points out Anis Gammar.

From his family plot located downstream, the farmer has a direct view of the dam. “A few years ago it was open once a day in the summer and they closed it for the winter until March. From there, it started to reopen, depending on the water supply,” he recalls. This resource management made it possible to maintain a high water level. Then gradually, after the revolution in 2011, underlines the farmer, the authorities began to open the floodgates further: “Twice a day in summer, and sometimes even in winter. Thousands of m3 of water are dumped each time. It is logical that there is no more water. »

An opinion shared by doctor of hydrogeology Radhia Essamin, member of the Tunisian Water Observatory, a civil society organization. “There has been no strategic vision for years, regrets the researcher. There are leaks that nobody cares about and as soon as there is a drought, the citizen is the first to be affected by the cuts. »

In a report published in 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture estimated that almost 32% of the water was lost on the Sonede network and some 40% on the irrigation networks due to "the state dilapidated infrastructure and [the] lack of maintenance". "This is bad governance and the state must take urgent action," insists Radhia Essamin. Requested several times by Le Monde, the Ministry of Agriculture did not respond to requests for interviews.

Dwindling resources

If in the capital, rationing arouses emotion, the phenomenon is already widespread in several regions of the country. This is "particularly the case in the south and the interior regions where the cuts can last several days", specifies Radhia Essamin. One of the projects of his organization is an interactive map allowing citizens to report a cut, a deterioration in the quality of water or a protest related to this resource. In 2022, it collected 2,299 alerts, of which more than 70% related to outages.

Originally from the governorate of Médenine, a mountainous and arid territory where water comes mainly from the ground and the sky, Radhia Essamin has observed for years the dwindling of resources and the rationing imposed. A situation that is all the more painful since "more than 250,000 Tunisians still do not have access to water and the majority live in rural areas", she laments.

But the quotas and cuts decided by the authorities may not have the desired effect. "As soon as there is drought, the citizen is the first affected by the cuts when 70% of the water is used for irrigation. Radhia Essamin points to very water-intensive crops such as citrus fruits and tomatoes. “We export our water in the form of agricultural products, and this water must be directed towards our food sovereignty. It is a priority for the State to publish an agricultural map and outline our priorities for irrigation. »

Anis Gammar favors species accustomed to water stress: olive trees, pomegranate trees, fig trees... "The majority of the crops we have in this region do not need to be irrigated in winter", he specifies. In the worst case, the farmer will be able to draw water from his well, an old device that he has cleaned and rehabilitated.