Tunisia's Gabès residents demand the right to breathe as industrial pollution poisons daily life

Mounia Ahmed*, a 47-year-old mother from Gabès, Tunisia, received a call from Chott El Salam Middle School that no parent should ever get.

Her 11-year-old son was struggling to breathe, and despite the school's infirmary doing everything they could to help him, his condition showed no improvement.

That September morning, Mounia dropped everything and rushed to the school, only to find her son lying unconscious — one of dozens of students affected by toxic fumes that had swept through the building.

Residents of Gabès blamed the state-owned Tunisian Chemical Group (CGT), which operates a phosphate-processing plant that, according to eyewitnesses, has been releasing toxic waste into the city’s air and water for more than five decades.

Dozens of parents withdrew their children from the school after the incident, but the crisis did not end there. Over the next three weeks, similar episodes occurred six more times, affecting nearly 100 students.

Hany bin Farag, an organiser with the Step Pollution movement, which has played a leading role in the city’s protests, reported the recurring cases.

With residents growing increasingly frustrated and no official response forthcoming, anger in Gabès boiled over, driving thousands into the streets.

By mid-October, the unrest had escalated further, culminating in a general strike called by the General Union of Tunisian Workers that brought the entire city to a standstill.

Protesters demanded the immediate implementation of a 2017 government order to close the most polluting units, which residents say has remained “ink on paper.”

"We send our children to study, not to suffocate," Ahmed told The New Arab.

"Our children have the right to live in a safe environment. I felt that we are second-class citizens and our lives have no value in this country."

50 years of deadly development

The tragedy in Gabès began in 1972, when the government decided to build the first industrial unit of the Tunisian Chemical Group in the heart of the city.

The stated aim was to transform raw phosphate, one of Tunisia’s most important exports, into value-added chemical products such as phosphoric acid.

Residents, however, say the decision was imposed on the region after other provinces refused to host the plant, which quickly became, in their words, “an environmental time bomb.”

"My house and windows overlook the beach where all the pollutants are dumped," said Adam Al-Zarli, a resident of Chott El Salam.

"We're exhausted and can’t take it anymore… we bury a family member or a friend almost every day."

A July audit, reviewed by Reuters, found serious violations of both national and international environmental standards at the plant.

The facility releases 14,000 to 15,000 tonnes of phosphogypsum daily into the Mediterranean, along with high levels of ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and sulphates.

Phosphogypsum, a byproduct of phosphate processing, contains radium, which decays into radon gas, both of which are radioactive substances linked to cancer by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Unlike EPA guidelines, which require secure containment, the plant in Gabès discharges its waste directly into the sea.

The audit concluded that the waste release had “greatly damaged marine seagrass beds and led to desertification of large marine areas.”

Boulbaba Makhlouf, a practising physician and environmental researcher, said what Gabès is experiencing is not accidental but the result of “systematic environmental and health terrorism” that has continued for decades. He believes the state has consistently prioritised industrial development over the health and safety of its population.

Boulbaba noted that pollution sources extend beyond the Tunisian Chemical Group to include private and foreign factories, such as the French company TIMAB.

“The industrial zone releases a constant mixture of toxic gases and materials, most notably sulphur dioxide, hydrogen fluoride, ammonia, in addition to soil and water pollution from phosphogypsum and industrial dust,” he told The New Arab.

He demanded accountability from all who have been negligent, including the dismissal of the industry minister, and affirmed that widespread protests are “completely legitimate.”

Shattered families

A mounting health crisis has mirrored the environmental destruction. Residents report rising rates of cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, kidney failure, and bone fragility, particularly in neighbourhoods near the industrial complex, such as Chott El Salam.

Jalila Hussein*, a resident of Chott El Salam, said most people feel as though they are “living on top of a toxic time bomb.”

“We’re in the streets, and we’re not demanding jobs or development, but the right to breathe and live with dignity,” she told The New Arab.

“I myself suffered from cancer. My daughter Jihan, 17, and my son Ali, 8, both have had osteoporosis since early childhood. Doctors confirmed that the polluted environment is the primary cause.”

Her husband also died years ago from lung cancer, which she says was due to pollution from the industrial complex.

Residents had grown accustomed to living with pollution, but the suffocation incidents in schools during September and October delivered a profound shock.

Scenes of students gasping for air and collapsing in classrooms turned long-simmering frustration into a full-scale environmental revolt.

Activists from the Stop Pollution campaign organised a protest on 9 October in front of the chemical complex headquarters in the capital, under the slogan The Complex is Killing Gabès.

Hundreds of residents poured into the streets on 12 October, carrying signs reading “We want to breathe clean air” and “No development over our corpses.”

"Gabès witnessed an unprecedented popular movement last Tuesday in response to a call for a general strike," Hany told The New Arab.

"The strike was one hundred per cent successful, with more than 130,000 citizens from across the province taking part."

He added that the protest was peaceful and serious, with demands focused on “the complete shutdown of polluting industrial units in the city of Gabès.” 

Hany insisted that residents “will not accept any attempt to hijack their demands or water them down with so-called reform or rehabilitation proposals for the factories. Our main demand remains the right to live in a clean environment and breathe clean air.”

Presidential directives and government response

Amid the escalation, President Kais Saied declared during a recent meeting with the prime minister that “the people of Gabès have the right to a healthy environment, and they are defending this right with complete freedom without restrictions.”

However, the president's speech also veered into discussions of corruption and conspiracy, accusing “corrupt and conspiratorial” forces of inflaming the situation and blaming Generation Z for further unrest.

Hany noted that although authorities initially met protesters with repression and arrests, the general strike proved that their movement was peaceful and responsible.

In an attempt to calm anger, Housing and Equipment Minister Salah Zawari promised “urgent and exceptional” measures, including completing previous projects to control emissions, at a cost of 200 million dinars ($66.6 million).

The government also announced recruitment for more than 1,600 jobs at the chemical complex, with the largest share going to Gabès.

Yet, these promises have done little to appease residents, who continue to demand the dismantling of the most polluting units.

On a recent Saturday, hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Tunis, chanting, “The people want the dismantling of the units,” at a rally organised by Stop Pollution with backing from the National Union of Tunisian Journalists and various civil society groups. 

More than 1,300 participants joined the march under a single slogan: “Dismantle the units, no to patchwork solutions.”

“Even the head of state has publicly admitted that what’s happening in Gabès is an environmental crime,” said Tarjeman Adam*, an activist with the Stop Pollution movement.

“And you don’t face a crime with denial, you confront it through dialogue and coming to the negotiating table. The tragedy of Gabès cannot be addressed by reopening a recruitment contest frozen since 2015 to give people false hope and silence them.”

*The names used in this article are pseudonyms and do not represent the real names of those interviewed

Intissar Gassara is a Tunisian journalist

This article is published in collaboration with Egab