Tunisia: the city of Sfax faced with an accumulation of waste

Following the closure of the main landfill, the municipalities no longer have where to put their garbage and another environmental crisis is underway in Sfax.

© Lilia Blaise / RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

In the city of Sfax, in eastern Tunisia, garbage has piled up in the streets for two months.

The reason for this ecological tragedy?

The main landfill, about twenty kilometers away, was closed at the request of the inhabitants.

They demonstrated for a right to a healthy environment in November, after years of fighting pollution and the nuisances created by the method of burying waste in open dumps.

As a result, the municipalities no longer have where to put their trash and another environmental crisis is underway.

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With our correspondent in Tunis,

Lilia Blaise

Black spots… This is what the Sfaxiens call the waste that overflows from the dumpsters on every street corner in the city.

Saida, 55, is employed in a pastry shop.

She can't believe her eyes.

Everywhere we go, we see them, it hurts the heart, I don't know, we should burn them or find a solution.

There are the foul smells, the mosquitoes flying around.

"

In the medina of Sfax, Noomen Abdelmakoud, a 65-year-old craftsman, expresses his anger.

“ 

People are fed up, it accumulates day by day.

If there is not a solution soon, I think that the population will explode and that we will go out in the street

”.

Tawfik, a vegetable seller, adds: “

When I see that and when I hear that neither the government nor the municipality know where to put the waste, I really wonder who is in charge in this country?

"

For Afef Hammami Marrakachi, professor of environmental law and also a member of the green Tunisia associative network, the authorities must move towards other methods of waste management.

"

We know that they are looking for other sites, that these sites must be very far from the local populations, that we must negotiate and involve them in the decision to install a landfill, but in the long run, the strategy should change to stop with these dumps. 

"

In the meantime, the problem remains unresolved and the country's main trade union force, the UGTT, declared a general strike in the city of Sfax on December 10.

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  • Tunisia

  • Environment