Protesting in a city that can’t breathe
Toxic air has sparked mass protests against Tunisia’s chemical industry – and the government that enables it.
Intissar Gassara in Gabès
Thousands of residents brought the southeastern coastal city of Gabès to a standstill on Wednesday, in one of Tunisia’s largest protests against President Kais Saied’s government. Their demands were not for abstract reforms. They simply want clean air.
The general strike, called by Tunisia’s General Labour Union, shut down schools, offices, and businesses after a series of suffocation incidents at local schools. Four separate gas leaks this month sent students gasping for air as toxic fumes swept through classrooms.
“The strike is the result of a … feeling of despair in the face of the authorities’ inaction,” said a local activist, who asked not to be named for security reasons.
The source of the fumes is Gabès’s sprawling chemical complex, built in 1972 to process phosphate, Tunisia’s most valuable mineral resource. A recent audit by the state-owned Tunisian Chemical Group, reported by Reuters, found serious breaches of national and international standards.
The plant releases 14,000 to 15,000 tonnes of phosphogypsum waste daily into the Mediterranean Sea, along with ammonia and nitrogen oxide.
The waste has “greatly damaged seagrass beds and led to desertification of large marine areas”, the audit found. Scientists warn of long-term cancer and neurological risks from radioactive byproducts.
Saied called the crisis an “environmental assassination”, but in the same breath blamed Gen Z youth for “fuelling tensions”. His mixed messaging has done little to calm residents. Authorities promised to close the plant in 2017, but now talk only of “rehabilitation” while going ahead with plans to expand phosphate output fivefold by 2030.
The government’s solutions are just “old promises, recycled again”, said local activist Saber, who requested that his last name be withheld for security reasons. “The complex has exceeded its lifespan and become a real danger to residents.”