FAO supports the institutionalization of water accounting in Tunisia

June 2022 _The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) representation in Tunisia organized a national workshop on water accounting and auditing (water governance) from 21^st  to 23^rd  May 2022 with the main objective of presenting the water accounting and auditing analyses of the Mejerda River. The three-day workshop was attended by 65 participants including members of the national water accounting team from the Ministry of Agriculture and its regional agricultural development commissariats.

A long process of national capacity building

The water accounting and auditing process was initiated in 2018, at the beginning of the regional project “Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for water efficiency/productivity and water sustainability in the Near East and North Africa region”. A preliminary pool of 15 engineers from different directorates of the Ministry of Agriculture and its institutions (General Directorate Of Water Resources, Bureau Of Planning And Hydraulic Balance, General Directorate Of Rural Engineering, General Directorate Of Dams And Hydraulic Works, National Institute Of Weather, Company Of The North Water Transfer, etc..) were trained on the basic concepts of water accounting and its applications. Quick water accounting exercises have been produced in Jendouba and Kairouan governorates, with the aim of refining the training of the team through practical cases.

In 2020, and in collaboration with IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, a training of trainers program "CB4WA" was implemented, which aimed at equipping the team with additional skills to enable participants to implement an advanced water accounting exercise, interpret it and deduce the implications.

Expanding the team and scale 

In 2021, the national team and under the request of the then Minister of Agriculture began work on the water of the Mejerda river, the most strategic surface water source for the country. The sub-basin of the lower Mejerda valley has been identified for the first stage of this exercise.

Five governorates share the water of the Mejerda from the dam of Sidi Salem; Beja, Bizerte, Ariana, Manouba and Tunis and therefore the involvement of the Regional Commissariats of Agricultural Development (CRDA) was a essential condition for the smooth running of this exercise.

Water accounting units have been implemented at each CRDA with a double mission: (i) to carry out the accounting exercise at the governorate level; (ii) and to contribute to the exercise at the sub-basin level. Several training cycles were organized in order to train the new teams and to start the analyses. 50 people were able to benefit from these trainings.

A team of national and international experts started the analysis of water governance in the same site. At the end of the first cycle, reports and posters were produced and the results were presented at the national workshop. 

Opening the debate on operationalization and accounting of water 

During three days of workshop, the results of analysis of the water accounting and governance carried out by the national team, at the level of governorates and then the scale of the watershed, were presented and discussed. The analysis of the results allowed a good reading of the problems of the basin, including overexploitation of water resources, unauthorized water pumping for irrigation, water pollution and inequitable access to resources.

The mapping of the stakeholders in the territories and the interactions, interests and compromises were also presented by the water governance team composed of international and national experts, in order to complete the analyses and feed and enrich the debates that followed the presentations.

The last day of the workshop was dedicated to the operationalization, up-scaling and institutionalization of water accounting in Tunisia.  The compilation of the discussions will result in a national roadmap.

FAO in collaboration with the World Bank is preparing a protocol that aims to provide a clear and practical approach for the establishment of a functional water accounting system in Tunisia. 

 This activity is carried out within the framework of the regional project "Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for water efficiency/productivity and water sustainability in the Near East and North Africa region", under the Water Scarcity Initiative. This project is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.