Increased protests in Tunisia’s Gabes as environmental problems get worse
Tunisian police used tear gas to disperse protesters near the phosphate offices of the Tunisian Chemical Group (CGT) in the southern city of Gabes. The protesters had surrounded the facility and demanded that it be shut down to stop pollution and the spread of respiratory illnesses.
The protest shows how hard it is for President Kais Saied’s government, which is already dealing with a severe economic and financial crisis, to meet the needs of the people while also producing phosphate, which is Tunisia’s most valuable natural resource.
As soon as the protesters got to the main building of the chemical complex, things got violent. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters and chased them through the city streets.
Reuters was told that protesters set fire to a branch office of the complex’s administration in the city. Firefighters were currently trying to put out the fire. People on protest blocked major roads.
Earlier in the day, protesters were inside the building and shouted slogans calling for it to be shut down and taken apart, according to witnesses and videos posted on social media.
In an attempt to stop the anger and protests from getting worse, Saied met with the Ministers of Energy and Environment late on Saturday and asked them to send teams to fix the phosphate acid unit of the complex.
One of the protesters, Khaireddine Dbaya, told Reuters, “Gabes has become a city of death. People are struggling to breathe, and many residents have cancer or weak bones because of the severe pollution.”
Gabes is going through an environmental crisis.
Reuters tried to get CGT to say something about what was going on in Gabes but they didn’t respond. It has not reacted to claims of pollution in the past.
Saied said last week that Gabes was being attacked by a “environmental assassination” because of what he called “criminal old policy choices.” He blamed these choices for the spread of disease and the damage to local ecosystems.
In 2017, the government promised to take down the Gabes complex and build a new one that meets international standards. They did this because they knew that the complex’s pollution were dangerous for people living nearby. The idea has not yet been put into action, though.
Every day, tons of industrial trash are dumped into the sea off of Gabes’ Chatt Essalam.
Environmental groups say that marine life has been seriously hurt. Local fishermen say that fish stocks have dropped dramatically over the past ten years, affecting a key source of income for many in the area.
This week, poisonous fumes from the nearby plant made it hard for dozens of schoolchildren to breathe, which led to the latest round of protests.
Videos showed parents who were scared and emergency workers helping kids who were having trouble breathing. This made people even more angry and led to calls for the plant to be shut down.
To take advantage of rising demand around the world, the government wants to bring the phosphate industry back to life by boosting production five times to 14 million tonnes by 2030.
