Water Security in Tunisia: Debated Issues

Abstract

The chapter addresses some of water issues still being debated, for which no definitive solution has yet been seriously considered, and have not yet obtained a consensus among water experts, water actors and the civil society. The questions that preoccupy Tunisia serve to organize the debate around two main topics: (i) How to secure the water supply? This theme covers physical and technical issues that Tunisians, engineers and decision-makers traditionally know how to formulate and resolve, but divergences persist concerning opportunities, timelines, methods of approach and implementation. This topic includes: new ways to improve the national water balance, underground storage of surplus water from the wetter North, internal security of water resources and hydraulic facilities, coping with groundwater overexploitation, securing water quality, protecting the status of water and human health. (ii) How to achieve good water governance? This theme covers legislative, institutional, regulatory and cognitive issues, most of which are subject to wide-ranging debates initiated some twenty five years ago by the Tunisian water community. These issues, still open to debate, concern: the institutional reforms, the Water Code revision, how to better use water for more equity and efficiency, developing and better valuing the knowledge on water, sustainably manage transboundary basins by consultation mechanisms.