Tunis/Tunisia — Most of the delegations in the Zaghouan governorate are in the grip of a disastrous environmental situation due to the blockage of the project to set up domestic waste processing centres.

These projects, which have been held up in the design phase, are part of the programme of the National Agency for Waste Management (ANGED), implemented through Tunisian-Italian cooperation, which began in 2013.

They include the construction of a landfill for waste recycling in the "Kistani" region and 5 processing centres in the delegations of El Fahs, Zriba, Bir Mcherga, Ennadhour and Saouaf.

Italy's contribution was limited to the construction of the 20-hectare landfill, at a cost of around 4 million dinars, and it did not finance the processing centre project.

This meant that ANGED had to build temporary centres and entrust the management of the landfill to a private company, which disposed of the waste by burying it in the ground, without any recycling process.

Walid Ben Omar, the owner of the operating company, told TAP only three municipalities take care of the transport of their waste from the temporary centre to the landfill, while the municipalities of Bir Mcherga, El Fahs, Ennadhour and Saouaf are experiencing a deplorable environmental situation due to the accumulation of domestic waste.

He noted that the operating period of the landfill will end on December 31, 2023, according to the contractual agreement with ANGED.