Tunisia raises drinking water prices by up to 16 percent due to drought

TUNIS (Reuters): Tunisia has raised its drinking water prices by up to 16 percent, the official gazette said on Friday, in response to a drought that has lasted five years.

After years of drought, average rainfall has increased in recent months but government officials said this week that Tunisian dams have only reached 35 percent of their stock capacity.

The North African country last year imposed a quota system for drinking water and a ban on its use in agriculture. Since last summer, it has been cutting off water supplies at night.

The price of water will be unchanged for small consumers.

Those whose consumption exceeds 40 cubic meters face about 12 percent increase to 1.040 Tunisian dinars ($0.33) per cubic meter and consumers of between 70 and 100 cubic meters per quarter will pay 13.7 percent more at 1.490 dinars per cubic meter with immediate effect.

The highest increase is for those whose consumption exceeds 150 cubic meters and for tourist facilities, for which the price per cubic meter has increased by 16 percent to 2.310 dinars.

Tunisia has launched water desalination plants to try to make up for the country’s lack of dams and the impact of climate change.