water emergency
As the government tries to prioritize grain staples and export crops, it has urged farmers to stop irrigating vegetable fields with water from dams.
As another urgent measure, authorities have also limited supplies to farms in some cases to ensure enough drinking water for homes and businesses.
As it wrestles with both its own financial problems and the need to curtail any excessive consumption, the government has increased the scale of slashing water prices, with larger increases for heavy users and wealthier economic sectors.
All those measures have pushed up vegetable prices, with inflation hitting more than 10% last month, stoking public anger at the government appointed after President Kais Saied seized most of the power in 2021. Is.
“It is time for the authorities to declare a state of water emergency,” said Radhia Smaine of the Tunisian Observatory of Water.
“If we remain silent, we will reach a state of thirst. Thousands of families will be short of drinking water,” he said.
Economy Minister Samir Said told Reuters last week that Tunisia is preparing studies for new dams and seawater desalination plants to be developed between 2023-25.
Officials are also considering more widespread rationing.
Habib of the Ministry of Agriculture said, “If we do not make a decision in January to reduce irrigation water and use rationed water to give priority to drinking water … then certainly in August our There will be no drinking water in the capital or in the coastal areas.” Officer.