Tunisian authorities have started cutting off drinking water at night in areas of the capital and some other major cities such as Sousse and Sfax, residents said, in what appears to be a bid to reduce consumption amid a severe drought.
Tunisia is suffering a severe drought, prompting officials to announce that the ministry may begin cutting off the water supply at night during the summer to reduce consumption and preserve the country’s limited water reserves.
However, an ongoing lack of rainfall appears to have prompted authorities in some areas to begin doing so early.
Yassin Mami, a lawmaker of the new parliament, reported that officials from the national water company informed him that the reason for the frequent interruptions of water supply in Hammamet city was “because the country is threatened by a water shortage.”
From September 2022 to mid-March 2023, a lack of rainfall reduced the capacity of Tunisian dams by approximately 1 billion cubic meters, according to a senior agriculture ministry official, Hamadi Habib.
Official data revealed that the Sidi Salem Dam in the north of the country, a key provider of drinking water for several regions, has decreased to only 16% of its maximum capacity of 580 million cubic meters.
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