Supporting Tunisia’sWater Scarcity and Drought

Management and Mitigation Plan

DESA and other UN Partners (ECA, FAO, WMO, UNISDR, UNEP, UNCCD, UNDP)

The Capacity Building Project on Water Scarcity and Drought Preparedness and Mitigation-A Case for Tunisia

Outline

Tunisia Water Scarcity and Drought Challenges

Existing Water Scarcity and Drought Programs and Gaps

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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

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Tunisia drought pattern

• 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.

Tunisia drought risk map

Percentage of rainfall reduction in Tunisia during the 2020s period as compared to the 1961-1990 period according to simulation of HadCM3-A2 model*

Regions 1961-1990 2020s 2050sWestern-North 4% 10% 20%Eastern-North 10% 10% 20%

Western-Centre 10% 17% 20%Eastern-Centre 105 23% 23%Western-South 20% 24% 27%Eastern-South 14% 15% 30%

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*

Advantages of adopting Water and Drought Management Policy

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.

Tunisia ’s Efforts on WS&D Management

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 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.

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.

"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 BranchDivision for Sustainable DevelopmentUN-DESAUnited Nations, Room S-2651405 42nd Street New York, NY 10017Tel. 212-963-7844Fax. 917-367-3391E-mail: areikat@un.orghttp://sustainabledevelopment.un.org