OECD Calls for Privatizing Tunisia’s Water

A new report diagnoses of the OECD addresses the main governance and financing challenges to management of the water supply and wastewater sector of Tunisia, and provides ways forward to address them through “private-sector participation” (PSP). Although OECD admits that the performance of the water sector in Tunisia has performed “remarkably well” in the past. This new report identifies the current opportunity to convince Tunisians to transform water governance by bringing in private interests to manage public water resources and the country’s aging infrastructure.                               

This policy paper was developed as part of a water policy dialogue conducted jointly by the OECD with the Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean (GWP-Med) in the context of the Governance and Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector project with the support of the FEMIP Trust Fund of the European Investment Bank.

OECD calls for a gradual approach, with small-scale enterprises to begin replacing the local water-management associations (groupements de développement agricole). In order to enable this change, the report calls for new legislation to support public-private partnerships and sets out three main pillars needed to support private-sector involvement in the water sector: (1) better access to information, (2) a consolidated communication strategy (to persuade the public to accept private control of public water) and (3) activated platforms. The OECD report also calls for the participation of NGOs and the Tunisian consumer defense organization (ODC).

Find the full report in English and French.

Photos: Front page : OECD publication cover. This page: Farmers of Diar Hojjej participating in a local water-management association workshop. Source: A. Challouf/CIRAD.