AfDB loans Tunisia about €82 million for wastewater re-use in agriculture, climate resilience

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group, has approved a loan of €81.9 million to Tunisia to implement the Treated Wastewater Quality Improvement Project for Climate Resilience Building (PAQEE-RCC).

The approval, the bank said on December 13, came at a meeting in Abidjan on 6 December.

PAQEE-RCC will improve the treatment of wastewater to make it compliant with the standards for its reuse, the statement also indicated.

“It will improve treatment and energy performance through the renewal of electromechanical and electrical equipment and the use of photovoltaic solar energy in 19 water treatment plants across 11 of the country’s governorates. It will also contribute to improving the water balance, to building resilience to climate change and to improving the quality of life for more than 670,000 people,” it added.

The project to cover 2024-2028 period, is presented as an important example of the water-energy-agriculture nexus by upgrading treated wastewater for agriculture and reducing energy costs by using solar energy. More than 3,000 hectares of agricultural land around the water treatment plants involved will be sown using the treated water.

On job creation, the project will generate approximately 200 direct temporary jobs (including 20% for women), 50 direct permanent jobs (including 30% for women) and 1,000 indirect jobs, 35% of which will be for women.

The credit line is the Bank’s third operation in the urban sanitation subsector to the benefit of Tunisia’s National Sanitation Office (ONAS). The bank, in addition to new loan, brings its total investments into in the drinking water and sanitation sector in the North African country to more than €400 million since 2011.