On Sept. 12, the people of Fernana — a small town located in northwestern Tunisia — gathered at the pumping station that supplies water to Tunis and threatened to cut off the supply to the capital, before security forces intervened and prevented them from doing so. This came in response to the death of Wissem Nasri, a cafe owner who set himself on fire outside the municipality building following a dispute with its general secretary because he could not obtain permission to serve shishas to his clients.

Nasri’s suicide — reminiscent of Mohamed Bouazizi's in Sidi Bouzid, whose self-immolation marked the beginning of the Tunisian revolution in December 2010 — provoked strikes and demonstrations in the city of Fernana. In a TV report aired Sept. 8, a resident of Fernana denounces the marginalization of his town, including the lack of access to water, although the region registers the most rainfall in the country and provides drinking water for most of the northern half of Tunisia.

Since the beginning of July, repeated water cuts in several regions of Tunisia sparked anger and protests among the local population. Water shortages were reported in towns such as Sousse, Nabeul, Sfax, Kef, Siliana, Beja, Sidi Bouzid, Ben Arous, Medenine and Tataouine. Given the increasing number of protests, the Tunisian citizen’s water observatory, Watchwater, warned against a possible “thirst uprising” in a statement released Aug. 10.

On July 28, then-Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries Saad Seddik — who was replaced by Samir Bettaieb after a change of government at the end of August — said at a press conference that Tunisia had suffered a rainfall deficit of 28% compared to 2015, and that this had negatively impacted the filling of dams in the north of the country. He also said Tunisians were living “below the water poverty line” — as defined by the United Nations — which is 1,000 cubic meters (roughly 264,000 gallons) per person, against 460 cubic meters (roughly 121,500 gallons) per person in Tunisia.