Tunisia, which is experiencing its fourth consecutive year of severe drought, has reduced its dam capacity to roughly 1 billion cubic metres, or 30 percent of the maximum, due to a lack of rain from September 2022 to mid-March 2023, according to senior agriculture ministry official Hamadi Habib.
As the country braces for another scorching summer, the drought-stricken government imposed new water-consumption restrictions, including a ban on using potable water to clean cars, public areas, or farms.
Furthermore, according to Tunisia's national water utility SONEDE, the African country would cut off water supply to inhabitants for seven hours each night in reaction to the country's worst drought on record, according to Al Jazeera.
SONEDE said on Friday that the water will be turned off everyday from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m., with immediate effect. Residents of various parts of the capital have already complained about abrupt cuts to their primary supply during the night since the start of the fasting month of Ramzan, when many people stay up late.
According to Al Jazeera, SONEDE head Mosbah Helali claimed the country was witnessing an unprecedented drought caused by a lack of precipitation for four years in a row, which SONEDE attributed to climate change.
He pleaded with Tunisians to accept the outcome. He cautioned that if the rules were disobeyed, sanctions and perhaps prison terms would be considered, according to Al Jazeera.
