Tunisia has recently celebrated the World Water Day. On this occasion, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Hydraulic Resources made an official statement stressing that Tunisia has adopted a prospective strategy aiming to guarantee its hydraulic resources with the basic notion that “water is the source of life”.
<i>La Presse</i> reports that within the framework of this strategy, significant hydraulic resources have been mobilized through the realization of 21 big-scale dams, 203 small-scale dams as well as 660 lake barriers and 3 desalination centers. This step led to positive results in particular in the rate of potable water, which was 85% in rural areas, for the year 2004. This rate is much better compared to the figures of 1987 (37%), however, <i>La Presse</i> notes that in order to meet the hydraulic needs of the country the rate of potable water should reach to 90% by 2006.
