Tunisia has achieved the highest access rates to water supply and sanitation services among the Middle East and North Africa.

[4] Responsibility for the water supply systems in urban areas and large rural centres is assigned to the Sociéte Nationale d'Exploitation et de Distribution des Eaux (SONEDE), a national water supply authority that is an autonomous public entity under the Ministry of Agriculture.

[1] Tunisia has achieved the highest access rates to water supply and sanitation services among the MENA countries through sound infrastructure policy.

[1] According to the Tunisian Ministry of Development and International Cooperation, in 2006 92.6% of the population had access to drinking water in homes.

Currently, 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres), planted primarily with orchards and for livestock feed, use treated water for irrigation consistent with national law.

[15] The annual total volume of exploitable freshwater in Tunisia is about 4670 hm3, out of which about 57% (2700 hm3) is surface water and the remaining 43% (1970 hm3) groundwater.

[13] Table 1 shows accessible (A) and available water (B) in Tunisia in hm3 per year for different time-horizons[14][15] The government plans to build four seawater desalination plants in Djerba, Kerkennah, Zaarat near Gabes and Sfax.

The capacity of the plants was increased by 50% in 2014 because groundwater availability was less than expected and water demand projections were higher than anticipated in studies conducted in 2006.

It still remains to be decided if the large plants in Ziarat and Sfax, with a capacity of 100,000 and 200,000 cubic meter per day respectively, will be financed through loans or by the private sector through Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contracts.

Water policy in Tunisia from the beginning of the second half of the 20th century until the 1970s contained the limited mobilization of the resources – with the construction of dams and reservoirs.

This strategy was devised and implemented in order to provide integrated control of potential water sources.

[13] Compared to other North African countries, Tunisia has developed and adopted numerous laws and plans regarding its water resources not only recently.

The current status, major deficits and core strategies are well described in Tunisia's country report on the water sector.

The construction of more than 200 small and large dams and the drilling of more than 1000 deep groundwater wells have led to improvements of use of Tunisia's available water resources from 60% in 1990 to 87.5% in 2004.

The strategy consists of a high number of studies and research programs with the target to plan and manage water resources more efficiently on a long run.

SONEDE is a public non-administrative entity placed under supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment, and Hydraulic Resources (MAERH).

[4] The Office National de l'Assainissement (ONAS),is responsible for the sanitation in cities, industrial and tourist zones.

As of September 2016, the variable part of the drinking water tariffs in Tunisia was as follows:[25] The exchange rate of the Tunisian dinar to the US dollar is 1.00 TND = $0.604 US.

This is an important point as in the majority of other developing countries sanitation is neglected with respect to water supplies.

The corollary is that sanitation prices are high with respect to regional standards, showing a sustained effort in the collection of costs which is absent in almost all other developing countries.

External partners play a major role in the development of the water and sanitation sector in Tunisia.

The measures taken were expected to significantly improve the productivity of agriculture and increase access to drinking water for rural population.

Farmers participate in decision-making through Agricultural Development Groups (ADGs) for irrigation and drinking water.

[29][30][31][32] KfW contributed in 2009 with an amount of 1 Million Euro for tariff studies and measures to strengthen participation by user groups.

KfW, AFD and the European Commission jointly finance this sanitation programme at a total cost of 81.5 million EUR for 19 wastewater treatment plants and 130 sewage pumping stations in 11 governorates.

It supports the upgrading of the primary and secondary networks in Greater Tunis; the expansion and rehabilitation of the sanitation systems in the towns of Monastir, Mahdia, Gabès, Medenine, Tataouine and Gafsa; extension of the South Hammamet treatment plant; construction of three wastewater treatment plants in the towns of Enfidha/Hergla, Menzel Temime and Tazarka/Somâa/ Mâamoura.

Furthermore, the project promotes the reduction of urban pollution and the coastal degradation through the introduction of new technologies and technical assistance.

In 2005 the World Bank approved a US$38 million loan to SONEDE for an urban water supply project in Tunisia.

The project objective consists in improving the quality of water in Greater Tunis and other selected urban centres.

In order to achieve its objective the project intends to modernize and upgrade the water supply infrastructures and enhance the sustainability of SONEPE activities.