Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation May -June 2014 Vol.9 No.3 | Page 16

Wastewater Use

Wastewater Use

Box 1: Tunisia: Water Reuse

POSSIBLE INVESTMENT
OPPORTUNITIES
Examples of sound investments in treated wastewater
wastewater
use include the following:

Tunisia, with per capita freshwater availability of about 450 cubic meters a year, is recognized as a leader
in the area of treated wastewater reuse. From 1996 to 2030, the share of treated wastewater as a percentage of total available water resources is projected to more than double from 4.4 percent to 10.9 percent. Despite strong institutional support, including the 2002 consolidation of the Ministry of Agriculture,
Environment, and Water Resources to oversee integrated water management and water reuse, only 18
percent of reclaimed water is currently used.Treated wastewater use has faced several constraints�social
acceptance, salinity levels too high for some crops, restrictive regulations, and volumetric pricing in the
range of US$0.02 to $0.05 per cubic meter (between 50 percent and 95 percent of the cost of freshwater for irrigation)� and these have limited its full potential for development.Through its carefully phased
approach to treated wastewater use and the concomitant development of a regulatory framewor