Tunisia's U-turn on phosphate sparks anger in blighted city

THE bedroom of 74-year-old Cherifa Attia smells like burnt rubber. The vast phosphate processing plant beside her home has been belching out toxic fumes into the atmosphere, blighting this Tunisian city.

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"This is killing us," said Cherifa as the foul air permeated her home. "That's all we breathe. Day and night."

Residents of Gabes, a city of around 400 000 people, have been campaigning for decades against the pollution from the plant, finally winning a promise from the government in 2017 to begin its gradual closure.

But with Tunisia now mired in public debt, the current government has gone back on that promise and is planning a fivefold increase in fertiliser output at Gabes in a bid to boost hard currency earnings.

The North African country used to be the world's fifth largest producer but has fallen back to 10th over the past decade and a half.

President Kais Saied has vowed to revitalise the sector and reverse long years of underinvestment in the Gabes plant.

The U-turn has angered campaigners who had pressed successive governments to honour the 2017 pledge.

"This plant harms the air, the sea and all forms of life," said Khayreddine Debaya co-ordinator of local campaign group Stop Pollution.

"We waited on successive governments to act on the 2017 decision, but the current one has visibly abandoned the idea," Debaya added.