Tunisian photographer fights environmental pollution with his camera in Gabes

Gabes -

Heaps of waste plastic bottles flooded in the port of the Tunisian governorate of Gabes (southeast), with two children in the middle, searching for bottles, and what they could get from usable materials, to sell and help their families with some dinars that they earn from their work in digging up garbage.

Muhammad trusted his camera, two children searching for plastic waste in the Tunisian port of Gabes (Al-Jazeera)

“Al-Tarbish” is the title of this photo taken by the young Tunisian photographer, Mohamed Merabet, while he was wandering by chance in the port. He wanted it to be a distress call to draw attention to the environmental danger threatening the port.

His photo won the first prize organized by the Institute for Contemporary Maghreb Research in the field of environmental photography.

The responsibility of the assembly

Muhammad lives in the “Shatt Sidi Abd al-Salam” area in Gabes, which is one kilometer away from the chemical complex in the area, and 700 meters from the sea.

Muhammad’s camera documents sea pollution with phosphogypsum (Al-Jazeera)

The complex was established in 1969 in the Shatt Sidi Abdel Salam area. It contains 51 chemical industrial production units, and converts phosphate into a number of other substances such as sulfuric acid and phosphorous acid, which contains phosphogypsum.

Like the rest of the Shatt residents, Mrabet (33 years old) inhales daily air polluted with toxic gases emitted from the complex, and occasionally collides with turtles and tuna fish that have died on the beach due to the pollution of sea water with phosphogypsum.

Muhammad documents the gases emitted from the chemical complex in Gabes (Al-Jazeera)

damage and pollution

His family’s agricultural lands were also damaged, the crop declined, and pollution destroyed the agricultural diversity in the region, and farmers are now deprived of the crops of pomegranate, henna, olive and even date palms, according to Muhammad.

Pollution of the port of Gabes with plastic waste, by Mohammed (Al-Jazeera)

In order to convey the suffering of all the residents of the beach, Muhammad decided to document all the manifestations of pollution in his area, and his cameras were the same, which capture sad moments, reflecting the scale of the environmental disaster that threatens all kinds of living creatures surrounding the complex.

His cameras documented the sea, which had turned into "black hot chocolate" and the sky was covered with thick clouds of poisonous gases and beach sand, littered with dead sea creatures and brown tree leaves that had been burned by polluted air.

Young Mohamed Merabet documents the death of a sea turtle due to pollution of sea water in Tunisia (Al Jazeera)

A passion since childhood

Mohamed's journey began with professionalism in the field of photography 8 years ago, despite his specialization in business management, but his passion for this field accompanied him since his childhood and crowned his love for the camera by opening his photography shop in 2016 relying on it as his only source of livelihood.

The young photographer found himself, without prior planning, rushing into the experience of environmental photography due to the scale of the environmental crisis in his region, so he moved his cameras to the Gulf of Gabes and its sailors who were enjoying the benefits of the Gulf before the creation of the complex, which turned their lives upside down as a result of the complex dumping huge amounts of phosphogypsum in the sea, as he confirms to the island. net.

Mohamed (third from right) during his participation in a competition organized by the Institute for Contemporary Maghreb Research (Al Jazeera)

Muhammad is trying to convey the suffering of the population, especially future generations whose lives are threatened by serious diseases such as cancer and osteoporosis. He even documented several cases of newborn infants with congenital malformations in the hope of raising awareness of environmental crime in Gabes, as he put it.

The footage documented also reflects the extent of the residents' suffering that has been going on for years, as they no longer have any healthy breathing space in their area due to the industrial and chemical pollution spreading in the area.

Muhammad documents environmental pollution in Tunisia's Gabes (Al Jazeera)

purposeful messages

In order for his message to be heard, the young man participates in national and international competitions in the field of environmental photography, and his photos have received great admiration and ranked first in several national competitions, and municipalities use them to raise awareness of the dangers of environmental pollution.

Muhammad (second from left) won the first prize in the environmental photography competition (Al-Jazeera)

Despite messages aimed at environmental photography, Mohamed did not hide his regret that citizens and officials in Tunisia did not give the necessary importance to this field, in contrast to its positive status in European countries.

The young photographer criticizes the lack of strong and honest associations and organizations that "have worked hard to reduce environmental disasters and have had real power for change for decades."