Supporting Tunisia’s
Water Scarcity and Drought
Management and Mitigation Plan
DESA and other UN Partners (ECA, FAO,
WMO, UNISDR, UNEP, UNCCD, UNDP)
Outline
1
Tunisia Water Scarcity and Drought Challenges
2
Existing Water Scarcity and Drought Programs and Gaps
3
The Capacity Building Project on Water Scarcity and
Drought Preparedness and Mitigation-A Case for Tunisia
Tunisia is considered as a freshwater scarcity country
Water resources are over exploited in Tunisia
The renewable water resource in Tunisia is below the water scarcity line of
1000 cubic meters per capita per year
393*
Tunisia drought pattern
Tunisia drought risk map
• The one year frequency dry is high in all the country.
• Frequency of two years and more is relatively low in the North, average in
the Centre and more frequent in the South.
Percentage of rainfall reduction in Tunisia during the 2020s period
as compared to the 1961-1990 period according to simulation of HadCM3-A2 model*
Percentage of dry years during the based period 1961-1990 and future horizons 2020s, 2050s for
different regions of Tunisia according to the HadCM3-A2 model*
Regions
Western-North
Eastern-North
Western-Centre
Eastern-Centre
Western-South
Eastern-South
1961-1990
4%
10%
10%
105
20%
14%
2020s
10%
10%
17%
23%
24%
15%
2050s
20%
20%
20%
23%
27%
30%
Advantages of adopting Water and Drought Management Policy
Tunisia ’s Efforts on WS&D Management
As for WS&D management, Tunisia is one of the best countries in the region.
Tunisia witnessed its worst drought in 50 years from 1999 to 2002, which primarily
affected agricultural producers (FAO, 2004). In response, the Tunisian government
implemented many interventions at a cost of approximately $54 million Tunisian
Dinars from 2000 to 2002 (Louati, 2005).
The Water policy in Tunisia has been focusing on the water mobilization and IWRM
has been implemented.
Organization and institutions involved in water resources
management and/or drought mitigation in Tunisia
The Ministry of Agriculture, and Water Resources (MARH, Ministère de l’Agriculture et des Ressources Hydrauliques) is entrusted
with the water management.
Tunisia ’s Efforts on WS&D Management
The Strengths of Tunisia drought management
• A high Presidential interest and support is devoted to the drought mitigation
system in Tunisia.
• The approach based on three drought management phases (before, during and
after drought process), is a very important strategy and relevant to the basic
elements of drought management theory.
• Capital productive sharing and preservation.
• Sustainability of farmers' incomes.
• Integrated and optimized water resources management in Tunisia, especially
during drought depending on its intensity and duration.
• Water saving is a national policy
Tunisia drought management Gaps Identified
• Independent body or unit responsible on drought management
• Standard management approaches
• Regional sharing on drought information
• Drought projection
• The financial incidences are supported by the State budget because of the
absence of insurance systems linked to drought and private sector contribution is
limited.
• Updating the drought mitigation plan is based until 2003 on simple note-taking
and observation findings, without any wide-spreading evaluation study. The
latter would be realized by an in-process study “The climatic changes and their
impacts on the agricultural sector and the ecosystems”.
• The deficiency in the relations between the different institutions that provide
information and data about water, which should be resolved by the
establishment of the Unified Water Resources National Information System in
the near future.
The Goals of this project are:
• To enhance Tunisia’s national preparedness for WS&D and
• To assist Tunisia further developing drought monitoring and early warning
systems.
The objectives of the project are:
• Raise awareness of up-to-date WS&D management tools, methodologies, and
BMPs, and enhance the national WS&D mitigation capacity.
• Strengthening the “quantitative dimension” of drought monitoring and early
warning systems and building a robust monitoring and evaluation systems in
Tunisia.
• Improve Tunisia’s drought forecasting capacity.
UN-DESA will achieve the objectives through:
•
•
•
•
Foster high-level political forums and technical workshops.
Promote regional and international cooperation and partnership.
Encourage the knowledge and best management practices sharing at all levels.
Provide technical and capacity building training supports.
"Droughts are hard to avert, but their
effects can be mitigated.[...] The price of
preparedness is minimal compared to the
cost of disaster relief. Let us therefore shift
from managing crises to preparing for
droughts and building resilience."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Message for
2013 World Day to Combat Desertification
17 June 2013
Thank you!
Feel free to contact:
Sami Areikat,
Sustainable Development Officer
Water, Energy and Capacity Development
Branch
Division for Sustainable Development
UN-DESA
United Nations, Room S-2651
405 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7844
Fax. 917-367-3391
E-mail: areikat@un.org
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org