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Tunisia's falling water supplies - 11th August 2023

By 2030, the World Bank predicts water supplies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will drop below the basic threshold of 500 cubic metres per person annually.

Tunisia is currently struggling with its fourth year of little rain, causing a serious drought. The country's now looking into new desalination plants to remove salt from seawater, as well as the possibility of purifying waste water for farming.

For farmer Lotfi Atyaoui, such plants ensure he can survive.

Lotfi Atyaoui: "To tell you the truth, we consider this (wastewater treatment) project to be vital because we suffer a lot from drought and lack of water. If we don't have water, we will lose our agriculture, our trees and our livestock."

Tunisia constructed its first desalination plants to purify groundwater around half a century ago. Then its seawater desalination facilities were introduced in 2018. Currently, Tunisia's 16 plants supply 6 percent of drinkable water, with the rest coming from 37 reservoirs. At present, these lakes are at 33 percent capacity, due to the drought. While there are bans on car washing, certain farm uses, and so on, the demand for more desalination plants is crystal clear. However, a key disadvantage is that most plants rely on oil, coal and gas, which are damaging for global warming.

Mosbah Helali, head of SONEDE – the national water company responsible for building one of the sites – says they're aware of the dilemma.

Mosbah Helali: "The drawback is energy consumption, but this is improving. One of the disadvantages is that it uses a lot of energy. We hope that, with technology, this will improve and that, with solar energy, we'll be able to mitigate the impact of energy consumption a bit."

With water shortages affecting the entire MENA region, many countries are attempting to upgrade their water processing plants and also improve the water for human consumption.