In front of a small mosque in central Tunisia, women queue at one of the village’s last water sources: a pipe meant to irrigate crops but which has become a lifeline in the arid region.
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“I just need something to drink,” Liv Sackett, 56, said under the scorching summer sun as she placed a jerrycan under a makeshift tap connected to a water line.
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Tunisia, along with neighbouring Algeria and much of the Mediterranean region, is experiencing “alarming drought conditions”, according to the European Drought Observatory.
But while drought and rising temperatures affect the entire region, the impacts are felt doubly in rural areas, where poverty tends to be higher.
Tunisia’s national water network serves almost all of the country’s urban areas, but only about half of the rural population.
The other half relies heavily on wells built by local agricultural associations that officially operate under the Ministry of Agriculture.
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“We’ve been marginalized,” said Sackett, whose village of about 250 families has one such well.
But the hydropower plant was shut down in 2018 due to unpaid electricity bills, a common problem for farming associations, leaving villagers in Subika district, about 30 kilometers north of Keraang city, without a pump to pump water to their community.
Since then, the family has relied on water from a well originally dug by local farmers to irrigate their land.
None of these wells are licensed by the state because many of them are unfit for human consumption, due to being contaminated by improper construction and testing.
Showing the scars that stretch across his abdomen, 57-year-old Ali Kammun said he had undergone two surgeries for a water-borne infection.
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“Half of us have kidney disease,” said neighbor Leila Ben Arfa. “The water is polluted, but we have to drink it.”
The 52-year-old said she and other women were “carrying jerrycans on their backs”.
Tunisia, now in its sixth year of drought, is the 33rd most water-stressed country in the world, according to the World Resources Institute.
The World Bank projects that by 2030, the Middle East and North Africa will fall below the “absolute water scarcity” threshold of 500 cubic meters per person per year.
That amount is already below 450 cubic metres per Tunisian inhabitant.
According to a 2023 UN report, more than 650,000 Tunisians, mostly in rural areas, lack access to piped water at home, and almost half of them live far from a public water source.
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Bottled water, which costs about 0.5 Tunisian dinars per litre, remains a luxury item for families in Tunisia’s poorest provinces.
“We need to find a solution,” said Jauher Kammoon, a 26-year-old farmer who has been sharing water from a well with other villagers.
“Most families come to collect water while we are working, so sometimes we can’t do both,” he said, calling the system unsustainable.
According to the National Agricultural Observatory, about 60 percent of the wells across the country are privately dug and unauthorized.
But while this practice may provide a temporary, albeit unhealthy, solution for some, it is making water shortages worse.
A 2022 study by ONAGRI found that Tunisia’s deep aquifers are being exploited at 150% of recharge rate, while groundwater aquifers are being exploited at 119%.
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“Today we have the same problems and are caught in the same vicious cycle,” said Miniara Mejbri, Kairouan coordinator for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
The villagers protested, blocked roads and filed multiple complaints, all to no avail.
“The provincial government said we already have drinking water,” said Sayef Nafatie, 34, who has been leading local efforts to resolve the crisis.
“They told us that if we protested, we should accept responsibility because the National Guard would arrest us.”
Dismayed, many have left their villages, Nafatie added.
Among them is his younger brother Rauf, who now lives in the coastal city of Hammamet.
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“At least 150 families have left,” said Saleh Hamadi, a 55-year-old farmer who is also struggling to allocate water from his well.
“Most of the young people have left the area, leaving the elders on their own,” he said.
“Why is this still a problem in 2024? Why are we still thirsty?”
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