The Tunisian Company for the Exploitation and Distribution of Drinking Water announced (Friday) that it will start cutting water for seven hours at night on a daily basis, in an effort to reduce the limited water stock. The water cuts start from nine in the evening until four in the morning, local time. The company justified this step by the negative balances between supply and demand for water, and described the situation the country is going through as "sensitive". And the Ministry of Agriculture (Agriculture) decided earlier to start a system of circumstantial quotas and temporary petrification of some water uses, in a step to reduce waste at a time when the country suffers from prolonged rainfall. Tunisian dams are witnessing unprecedented levels of storage, as they do not exceed 30% of their capacity, according to the latest update this month. The reservoir in the largest dam in the country, the Sidi Salem dam, the main supply for the northern regions, is only 17% of its capacity. The ministry’s decision, which was published on Friday, prohibited the use of drinking water distributed by the National Water Exploitation and Distribution Company for agricultural purposes, to irrigate green spaces, to clean streets and public places, or to wash cars. Tunisia has been suffering from a continuous drought for three seasons, and officials in the Agriculture Union warned of catastrophic repercussions on agricultural crops, including grains, vegetables and fruits. Tunisia is classified by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, among the countries threatened by water scarcity.
Okaz (Tunisia)