Algeria and Morocco have major problems with drought, but the worst is in Tunisia. Three years of drought have drained the water reservoirs. Since last autumn, it has only rained 20 per cent of normal. Now the authorities in Tunisia have implemented strict measures to get people to use less piped water: The water is turned off for seven hours at night, from nine in the evening to four in the morning. It is not allowed to use water to wash cars. It is not allowed to water green areas or wash streets. Water must no longer be used for irrigation systems in agriculture. Women near the Tunisian town of Korba pick strawberries this week. Now the authorities have banned the use of water from the reservoirs for agricultural irrigation. Photo: FETHI BELAID / AFP Worse than southern Europe Large parts of southern Europe are in a multi-year drought. In Catalonia in Spain, the water reservoirs are almost empty of water. It is even worse in the Maghreb region of North Africa. An overview from the European Drought Observatory shows the areas around the Mediterranean. There are large areas in North Africa that are colored red; the color that shows the worst drought situation. The Sidi Salem dam in the north of the country, which is an important supplier of drinking water to several regions in Tunisia, has only reached 16 percent of its maximum capacity of 580 million cubic meters as a result of little rain, according to official figures. A map from the European Drought Observatory in March shows that the countries in North Africa are hardest hit by drought. Red shows the hardest hit areas. Photo: European Drought Observatory Fears for the grain harvest Now people in Tunisia fear that the drought will extend beyond the grain harvest. An EU report from February warns of severe drought early this year after heat waves and drought in 2022. – There may be consequences for agriculture before the summer of 2023, the report states. According to the EU, the grain harvest in the Maghreb this year is likely to be 15-24 percent lower than the average of the last five years. For Tunisia, it is set to get even worse. Mohamed Rjaibia from the Tunisian farmers association tells Reuters that this year’s grain harvest will be 200,000-250,000. In that case, it will be less than a third of the 750,000 tonnes that were harvested in 2022. The miserable grain harvest occurs at the same time as the war in Ukraine makes it expensive and difficult to import grain. Two women in Tunis fetch water from a local well after the authorities have turned off the drinking water in parts of the country. Photo: JIHED ABIDELLAOUI / Reuters Getting hotter and drier Tunisia has always depended on collecting water in reservoirs in the winter to irrigate in the summer, writes The Guardian. The infrastructure has become old and the water pipes are increasingly leaking. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says that around 30 percent of water is lost before it reaches a tap. At the same time, the climate crisis is hitting the country hard. An overview from USAID shows that the temperature will rise by up to 3.8 degrees until 2050. At the same time, it will rain at least 4 percent less in the same period. 4 percent may not sound like much, but for a country on the edge of the Sahara desert, every drop counts.
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Tunisia shuts off the water at night and bans car washing due to extreme drought – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
