Faced with drought and a drop in water reserves in dams, the Tunisian government has decided to increase the price of drinking water by 16%. This increase in the price of drinking water applies to all types of subscription except for tourist subscriptions and subscriptions for development groups in the agricultural and fishing sectors.
The current stock of water in the Tunisian dams represents 35.1% of their capacity, according to the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture. As a result, dam reserves stood at 813 million cubic meters on 28 February 2024. With this in mind, the government decided on Friday 1 March 2024 to increase the price of drinking water by 16%. The aim is to preserve Tunisia’s low dam reserves, which have been affected by drought for several years.
« This water drought has been caused over the last five years by a lack of rainfall. The Tunisian government needs to do something about it. The population should not be penalised because there is a water shortage so prices are raised. 16% is a lot for the people of Tunisia, who have been living in precarious conditions for over a decade. So all this combined should push the Tunisian government in solving the most urgent problems, which are there and which are glaring. »
Hamidine Moctar KANE , Doctor in Economics and Economic Intelligence – Mauritania
To cope with the persistent drought and depleting water reserves in dams, the Tunisian authorities have launched water desalination plants in an attempt to alleviate the problem. In addition, in March 2023, the Tunisian authorities announced restrictions on the supply and use of water for agriculture and private use in the country.
« To create desalination plants to help the population and to help agriculture. Agriculture should inevitably be drip-fed, whereas this is not yet the case in Tunisian agriculture as a whole, which uses a lot of water to produce agricultural products to meet the needs of the population and export certain products.
Hamidine Moctar KANE , Doctor in Economics and Economic Intelligence – Mauritania
According to the World Resources Institute, Tunisia, which has around 4250 million m3 of exploitable resources available each year, equivalent to 420 m3 per capita per year for all uses, is below the water stress threshold, set at 500 m3 per capita per year.
