Skip to main content
Sensations English Logo
LEVEL C1

Shadowing the newsreader

Listen to the newsreader read out each line and then practise saying it. Record your own voice line by line and submit your voiceover.

Hide View

The World Bank has forecast that by the end of the decade, the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will tumble below the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 cubic metres per capita per year.

Grappling with its fourth consecutive year of drought, Tunisia's prioritising new desalination plants and also facilities dedicated to the purification of waste water, for use in agriculture.

For Lotfi Atyaoui, in fear of losing his crops and livestock to climate change, the plant's been a godsend.

The 1970s first saw the country's brackish groundwater being purified in desalination plants, followed by its first seawater desalination plant in 2018.

16 plants yield 6 percent of Tunisia's potable water, with the remainder sourced from its 37 reservoirs, currently merely one third full.

Nowadays, water rationing is commonplace.

There are bans on car washing, aspects of household use and even on farm irrigation.

Although there's clearly an urgent need for desalination facilities, the flip side is that most plants are reliant on the very fossil fuels which are stoking the climate crisis.

For Mosbah Helali, the outgoing CEO of the national water supplier SONEDE, which is constructing one of the new plants, they're very conscious of this paradox.

Since water scarcity's impacting the whole MENA zone, nations are racing to update both their water processing systems, and the quality of drinking water for urban and rural dwellers.

REGISTER NOW

Get videos, articles, games and study tools!

Learn at six levels from A1 to C1
Or sign up with your Email
By clicking “Sign Up” above you are accepting our Terms of Service & Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign in

Sign up with email

Enter the following information to create your account.
All sign up options

Log in Or create an account

or

Forgot password?

reset password or login

Crop Image

Crop preview
Add to homescreen