Tunisia will cut off water supplies to citizens for seven hours a night in response to the country’s worst drought on record, according to the State Water Distribution Company (SONEDE) on Friday, March 31, 2023.

The drought-hit country announced other tight restrictions on water usage – as it braces for another baking summer – including a ban on the use of potable water for irrigating farmland or green spaces, or for cleaning public areas or cars.

SONEDE said that the water will be cut off daily from 9pm until 4am, with immediate effect.

Mosbah Helali, the head of SONEDE, said the drought in the country, brought on by the scarcity of rain across four consecutive years and which SONDE attributed to climate change, was unprecedented, and called on Tunisians to understand the decision.

He said fines and even prison sentences were being considered if the rules were broken.

Residents of several areas of the capital have already complained of unannounced cuts to their main supplies at night since the start of the fasting month of Ramadan, when many stay up late.

The new decision threatens to fuel social tension in a country whose people suffer from poor public services, high inflation and weak economy.

The North African country’s dams are at critical lows following years of drought, exacerbated by pipeline leaks in a decrepit distribution network.

Tunisia recorded a drop in its dam capacity to approximately one billion cubic meters, or 30 percent of the maximum, senior agriculture ministry official Hamadi Habib said.