Tunisia [Video]:Water pollution from Sidi Salem dam, clarifications of Director of Agriculture in Béja

Speaking to Tunisie Numérique, regional director of agriculture of Beja Abderraouf Jaziri declared that following news on social networks on the pollution of drinking water from one of the streams of Sidi Salem dam in Beja, he wanted to make clarifications.

Mr Jaziri asserted that waters of all sanitation stations discharge their water either into natural environments, meaning wadis or the sea as is the case in Beja. He evoked that the agriculture directorate in Beja constantly observes the water and as soon as there is a variation in the colour with the naked eye, it responds.

He recalled that last year the water had a black colour, ensuring that the governor and he notified the regional committee for the fight against disasters. According to him, it is a breakdown of the sanitation station which demanded the active intervention of all the institutions each in its field to deal with the situation in particular the Sanitation Office, the Ministry of environment and regional and central authorities.

He specified that the water of the dams is raw water which during floods brings animal corpses, remarking that when they are employed for watering they are used as they are but when they are designed to serve as drinking water they experience treatment by SONEDE as is the case of the waters of Sidi Salem.

The regional director of agriculture stated that anyone who believes that drinking water is polluted only needs to go for tests to confirm it.