Waste Management in Tunisia—What Could the Past Bring to the Future?

Waste production has tremendously changed in Tunisia following the transformation in the population’s lifestyle. Wastes’ quality has changed as well driven by the diversity of products and consumption trend. Government and local authorities started very early to overcome challenges associated with waste by setting strategies, action plans, and updated policies. Waste management has shown substantial progress since the 1990s and during the early years of 2000s. The institutional and regulatory frameworks of solid waste management have improved, likewise the business model in which both governmental and private sectors are involved as a public-private partnership (PPP). Solid wastes are collected and discharged into controlled landfills or are recycled. Since the majority is organic, recycling or energy and biogas production was promoted; the rest of waste is chiefly composed of paper and plastic materials that pose an environmental concern. Liquid waste consisting mainly of urban wastewater is relatively well managed with 98 % of effluents secondary treated. Nevertheless, more than 80% of the treated wastewater is released into the water bodies. Water Code, as the overreaching regulation on water, together with other national regulatory texts is revised and updated to protect the environment from all types of wastes. Actions plans are under development to promote recycling and reuse of wastewater in various domains. Liquid and solid wastes are both sources of nuisances and potentially hazardous contaminants that impact human health and cause irreversible transformation of the ecosystem if they are mismanaged and/or improperly discharged. In this regard, various types of micropollutants released to water bodies or infiltrated from landfills, as a whole, were identified like pharmaceutical compounds and industrial compounds. Despite the multiple initiatives undertaken in the framework of national and international programs, waste management sector is facing several obstacles to be urgently addressed. The low level of collaboration between national institutions and local authorities and prevailing overlapping roles, the low involvement of the civil society, and the lack of funding, in addition to the difficulties in adopting/applying new technologies and changing citizens’ mindset and attitude are among the main hurdles. Since the year 2011, solid and liquid waste management in urban and rural areas has witnessed a remarkable degradation. Several weaknesses linked to the institutional, financial, and regulatory levels were reported, exacerbated by the closing of several landfills. The latter is motivated by citizens’ motions. To counterbalance the irreversible impacts of waste discharge on health and environment, a number of programs are currently developed under the umbrella of the new decentralized decision-making policy. Municipalities are expected to leverage local efforts for scaling up successful initiatives for sustainable and integrated waste management.