Tunis – Disasters caused by natural hazards claimed 1,098 lives, affected almost 300,000 people and destroyed or damaged almost 45,000 homes in Tunisia from the 1980s through last year, said representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries Mohamed Ben Saïd, on Wednesday (7) in Tunis, during a debate on the “Prevention and management of droughts and floods” at the 5th Mediterranean Water Forum.
TAP state news agency reported that Saïd added that Tunisia has experienced years of drought with a sharp increase in the number of hot days and in the average annual temperature of about 1.4. Pictured, flood in Tunisian city Beja in 2011.
Losses and damage due to flooding in Nabeul, a seaside resort in Tunisia, in 2018 alone were estimated at USD 106 million, with 2,400 jobs lost. Between 2005 and 2020, Tunisia also suffered 4,332 forest fires, destroying some 41,000 hectares of forested areas.
According to a World Bank report, rising sea levels could affect almost a quarter of Tunisia’s coastal zone by 2050, potentially resulting in a total loss of land worth USD 1.6 billion. The likelihood of catastrophic flooding is expected to increase almost tenfold, and the cost of restoring road assets alone after such flooding may reach USD 277 million by 2050.
Faced with these growing losses and threats, the Ministry of Agriculture embarked on two major programs, the first aimed at protecting towns and farmland from flooding, and the second at harnessing excess rainfall during wet periods to cover the needs of the regions most affected by drought.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
