VZCZCXYZ0009
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTU #0344/01 0470822
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 160822Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY TUNIS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9819

UNCLAS TUNIS 000344 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA/MAG FOR LAWRENCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SENV TS
SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENTAL WOES AND SOLUTIONS IN GABES 
 
REF: TUNIS 10 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Summary: The southern coastal town of Gabes is one 
of the primary industrial zones in the country.  While 
chemical factories have provided jobs boosting the local and 
national economy, resulting pollution has severely damaged 
the local ecosystem and posed health risks to the population, 
who express dismay that while the rest of Tunisia enjoys 
significant tourism investment, Gabes has in essence become a 
dumping ground for Tunisia's chemical industry. While the GOT 
has in recent years conducted environmental assessments, and 
is currently embarking on a EU/World Bank funded clean-up, 
there is little chance that the industrial character of Gabes 
will change.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Situated on the south-eastern coast of Tunisia, 
Gabes is the 15th largest city in Tunisia, with a population 
of approximately 120,000.  Gabes is the only coastal oasis in 
the world.  In the past three decades, the region has seen 
extensive industrial growth involving chemical/fertilizer, 
cement and brick factories.  Much of the local economy is 
also driven by agriculture, including date palms, and olive 
and fruit trees.  Local residents are quick to point out that 
there has been no government-assisted investment in a local 
tourism industry, despite Gabes' beautiful coastline, and 
location at a crossroads between the fertile north of Tunisia 
and the southern desert.  During a recent trip to the region, 
numerous Gabesians, both working-class and intellectuals, 
told Poloff that there had been a trade-off: that while the 
rest of the country would be devoted to tourism, Gabes would 
be a largely industrial site, in essence, a dumping ground 
for Tunisia's dirty, but economically necessary chemical 
industry.  (Gabes is second to Sfax in industrial pollution 
emissions.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) Several interlocutors mentioned that, if lost to a 
change in the town's vocation, the approximately 2,000 jobs 
created by the chemical and cement/brick factories in the 
Gabes area would easily be absorbed if the region's tourism 
sector was developed.  A former mayor of Gabes noted that 
with "four or five nice hotels on the beach, all the chemical 
factory workers would be employed."  Gabesians pointed to 
multiple negative side-effects of industrial pollution in the 
Gabes area including fish kills and ecological damage in the 
Bay of Gabes, water and air pollution, and significant health 
problems among residents, such as elevated cancer rates and 
skin, dental and intestinal problems due to excessive air 
pollution.  Poloff noted several Gabesians with pervasive 
dark stains on their teeth, allegedly due to elevated levels 
of flourine in the body from chemical production emissions. 
However, according to to a 2001 report from the UN Industrial 
Development Organization, measures taken to reduce air 
pollution in Sfax and Gabes, including improved filtering 
systems, resulted in a 65 percent reduction in sulfur oxide 
and an 80 percent reduction in ammoniac discharge since the 
late 1990s. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Although air emissions from chemical plants have had 
negative side effects on public health in Gabes, 
international environmental groups have been more concerned 
about the dumping of phosphogypsum, an acidic by-product from 
phosphate fertilizer production, into the Gulf of Gabes.  A 
recent study by the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean 
Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) and the World Bank 
pinpointed the Gabes region as one of the most polluted in 
the Mediterranean Basin.  According to a Greenpeace study, 
between 1970 and 1995 the state-owned fertilizer plants in 
Gabes pumped more than 60 million tons of phosphogypsum into 
the Gulf.  A study by the University of Tunis found massive 
levels of toxic or carcinogenic chemicals contained in 
phosphogypsum such as lead, copper, and zinc that had been 
dumped into the Gulf of Gabes since the early 1970s.  The 
level of cadmium, a heavy metal toxin, was 16 times higher in 
1995 than the maximum allowed by Tunisian legislation. 
According to Tunisia's former Greenpeace representative, the 
toxic dumping led to "a warm, toxic, soup of heavy metals" 
and a "dead-zone" of 20 square miles in the sea around Gabes. 
 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Under increasing international and domestic 
pressure, in the late 1990s, the GOT announced new 
initiatives to lower levels of pollution and conduct 
assessment studies of environmental damage.  In 2004, the 
Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership 
(FEMIP) sub-division of the European Investment Bank signed a 
EUR 45 million finance contract for a pollution abatement 
project in the Gulf of Gabes.  The project covers several 
anti-pollution measures, in particular the management of 
phosphogypsum.  The waste generated will be transported in 
solid form by train to an isolated land-based site where it 
will be covered with an impervious layer of clay.  Metering 
and recording equipment will be employed to monitor 
accidental seepage that may come from the landfill area to 
ensure compliance with international environmental standards. 
 Also in 2004, the GOT and the World Bank agreed to 
co-finance an intensive environmental assessment of the Gulf 
of Gabes marine and coastal resources.  This project will 
"develop mechanisms for the integrated biodiversity 
management of the Gulf of Gabes and identify long-term 
institutional and technical resources required to reverse the 
current trend of biodiversity degradation." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: Environmental woes were on every Gabesian's 
mind during a recent reporting trip to the southern city 
(reftel).  Despite the local internationally-financed 
clean-up projects, and a bold GOT national environmental 
protection strategy aimed at corrective actions and 
preventive initiatives, few people we spoke with in Gabes 
gave the GOT any credit for sufficiently addressing the 
problem.  Only our GOT interlocutors in Gabes were aware of 
the World Bank/EIB initiatives.  Short of the closure of the 
Gabes fertilizer plants, it is likely that many Gabesians, 
who long for a clean, tourism-based local economy, will 
remain discontent.  Needless to say, with chemical production 
representing 15% of Tunisia's exports, the Gabes chemical 
industry will continue.  The GOT has however recognized that 
ignorance of the harmful environmental effects of this 
industry in the past has led to significant and in many 
areas, irreversible damage, and has begun measures to address 
these problems.  Continued vigilance and attention is 
necessary should Tunisia hope to balance the often 
conflicting goals of chemical production and environmental 
protection. 
HUDSON