Name: Tunisian activists fight for communities for access to water
Uploaded: 2026-01-06T18:37:49.736Z
Duration: 2 min 14 s
Description: Tunisian communities are increasingly frustrated that access to drinking water is still not a given, particularly for rural communities. Hundreds of thousands of people are thought not to be connected to distribution networks at all. To make matters worse: some live next to the very dams that supply bigger cities.

Tunisian communities are increasingly frustrated that access to drinking water is still not a given, particularly for rural communities. Hundreds of thousands of people are thought not to be connected to distribution networks at all. To make matters worse: some live next to the very dams that supply bigger cities.

Tunis

Residents of Fawhra, a town near the Buhurtma Dam in northern Tunisia, continue to face significant challenges in accessing water for daily use. Despite their proximity to one of the country's main dams, villagers must travel long distances or use makeshift systems to obtain water, often of questionable quality.

Local activist Atef is documenting these cases for the Water Observatory, an NGO focused on citizen access to water. Authorities cite high costs as the reason for limited infrastructure, while NGOs report that water-related protests accounted for the majority of national demonstrations in 2024, with expectations of further increases.

Tunisian activists fight for communities for access to water

In Fawhra, a town near the dam of Buhurtma in north Tunisia, Atef, an activist fighting for the right to water, meets with townspeople who don't have water at home. I have to walk several kilometers to get water, and I have to do it several times each day. Atef is documenting their case to send to the Water Observatory, an NGO researching the problems of citizen access to water. The paradox is that here in this town they see water every morning, in one of the main dams of Tunisia, the Buhurtma Dam, and they can't get a drop of it. They have to travel kilometers with donkeys to fill up jerrycans, or they find makeshift solutions, as one villager shows us. In the elevated area of the village where there's a natural spring, he and other residents installed various pipes of odds and ends to bring water to their houses. Look at all these rubber hoses. They come down from the spring to the houses. We are the ones who installed it, and consider that it serves two communities. And with this totally makeshift system, we drink, eat, wash dishes, and water our animals. He has no way of checking the quality of this water. Look at the dirt and limestone, all that. It gets mixed with the water, and unfortunately we have to drink it. So far, authorities haven't found a solution, except for a managed spring located at the bottom of the hill, far from the first town. The villagers who live here come to fetch water from this source, which is unregulated. Authorities say the problem of lack of water is because it's too expensive to provide for houses that are spread out among the hills. Personally, I think money should never be an obstacle for allowing a citizen his basic rights. According to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, an NGO, protests about water made up 59% of the protests around the country in 2024. They expect it increased in 2025.

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