Market brief
Tunisia
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Tunisia, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for TunisiaOverview
Tunisia buys water infrastructure through two national utilities: SONEDE for drinking water and desalination, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, and ONAS for sanitation, under the Ministry of Environment.1 2 The national desalination programme covers plants at Djerba, Zarat, Sfax and Sousse, with development-finance lending for the first three and the state budget for Sousse. The Gargour plant at Sfax reached 100,000 cubic metres a day in September 2024 and is expandable to 250,000.3 4 The register tracks 34 schemes with US$ 1.3 bn of disclosed value, US$ 0.4 bn of it in projects not yet operating.5 A partnership framework exists under Law 2015-49, amended in 2019, alongside the 2008 concession law,6 but the funders on record are development lenders: the World Bank, AfDB, KfW, AFD and JICA. Tariffs are set by ministerial order.1
Market snapshot
The commercial picture in Tunisia: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Political stability; higher is more stable.7
Investment climate
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.7
Key institutions
- Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources & FisheriesMinistry
- DGGREERural water directorate
- SONEDE (national water utility)Utility
- ONAS (sanitation)Utility
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkEmerging
- Tracked projectsUS$ 1.3 bn disclosed value in our projects register, of which US$ 0.4 bn pipeline (not yet operating)
- Active fundersWorld Bank, AfDB, KfW, AFD, JICA
- Climate adaptation planIn preparation (draft at national validation, October 2025)
Opportunities
- 01Desalination expansions at Sfax and Zarat, and southern brackish-water plants
- 02Treated-wastewater reuse expansion
- 03Network rehabilitation & NRW reduction
- 04Solar desalination for the south
Key challenges
- 01Below the absolute-scarcity line
- 02North–south imbalance
- 03Salinity of southern groundwater
- 04Ageing networks & high losses
Sources and notes
Sources: Water use by sector, total water withdrawal, supply by source and desalination share: FAO AQUASTAT, 2023, FAO AQUASTAT Dissemination System, retrieved 7 October 2026. Reuse share: ONAS (national sanitation office), 2023. Population and GDP: World Bank WDI, latest year (shown on each tile). Other figures: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports, latest available, approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2025).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Tunisia. In Tunisia the ministries set policy and the drinking-water tariff is set by ministerial order;1 SONEDE, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, and ONAS, under the Ministry of Environment, run the assets.2
- Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources & FisheriesMinistry
- ONASUtility
- SONEDEUtility
- DG Water Resources (DGRE)Water resources assessment and monitoring
- DG Rural Engineering & Water Exploitation (DGGREE)Irrigation & drainage
How deals are structured
The framework in Tunisia is Emerging, the schemes we track carry US$ 1.3 bn of disclosed value, US$ 0.4 bn of it in projects not yet operating, and the funders most active in the sector are World Bank, AfDB, KfW, AFD, JICA.
Delivery splits by asset class across the region: dams and trunk conveyance are mostly engineering contracts carried by sovereign or development-bank finance; bulk supply increasingly uses build-operate-transfer concessions against a long-term offtake; and distribution work is let as performance-based contracts paid against measured leakage reduction. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
How to bid
Tunisia buys water infrastructure through two national utilities: SONEDE for drinking water and desalination, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, which signs the tariff order;1 and ONAS for sanitation, under the Ministry of Environment.2 The partnership framework rests on Law 2015-49 as amended by Law 2019-47, alongside concession Law 2008-23.6
| Procuring body | SONEDE for drinking water and desalination (Ministry of Agriculture); ONAS for wastewater (Ministry of Environment).1 2 |
|---|---|
| Reference transaction | The Gargour plant at Sfax was officially inaugurated on 18 June 2026, after its first unit entered service in July 2024 and the plant reached 100,000 cubic metres a day in September 2024.3 It is expandable to 250,000 cubic metres a day, with JICA support, an updated estimated cost of about TND 1.18 billion, and roughly 700 litres a second redirected from Greater Sfax.4 |
Regulatory intelligence
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water Code | Under revision | 1975/2019 | 1975 code in force; draft law 66/2019 still being revised in 2026. |
| Emergency drought measures | Episodic | 2023– | Quotas and rotational supply in dry years. |
| Reuse standard (NT 106.03) | In force | 1989 | Agricultural-reuse quality standard; discharge limits revised by arrêté of 26 March 2018. |
| Desalination programme | Active | 2018– | Djerba, Zarat, Sfax and Sousse plants; DFI finance for Djerba, Zarat and Sfax, while Sousse is financed from the state budget. |
Primary references: the Ministry of Agriculture, SONEDE and ONAS.
Projects
Tracked schemes in Tunisia, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
Sources and notes
Interactive map: switch views, hover or focus a marker, and use the +/− controls (or double-click, then drag) to zoom and pan. Geometry and data from the MENA Water Review library.
34 tracked in total. The full set, filterable, is in the major projects register.
Track record
Contracts on record in Tunisia, from the awards log and the major projects register, dated by commissioning where known.
Disclosed value by year
US$ bn of tracked awards in Tunisia carrying a published value
1 further award in this sector has no value recorded in our register and is not in the chart.
| Year | Project | Winning firms | US$ m |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 on line | Sousse Seawater Desalination | Abengoa, Engineering Procurement & Project Management contractor | 44 |
| 2025 awarded | ONAS Tunis Nord Sanitation Concession | Maghrebia Technologies and Travaux, Tuniber, Aguas de Portugal developer | n/a |
| 2024 on line | Zarat Desalination | VA Tech Wabag contractor | 105 |
| operating | ONAS Southern Sanitation Concession | SUEZ, Segor, Groupe SCET, BIAT developer | 216 |
| 2021 | Sfax (Gargour) Desalination | Cobra / Tedagua, Metito, Orascom Construction contractor | 237 |
| 2018 on line | Djerba Desalination | FCC Aqualia, GS Inima contractor | 83 |
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Tunisia, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.065 – 0.75 | not published | 2024 | Ministerial arrêté, JORT no. 033 of 1 March 2024, applying to bills issued from that date; SONEDE, 2023 summary report (consumption)1 8 |
Six quarterly blocks, excluding VAT: TND 0.200/m³ to 20 m³, 0.740 to 40, 1.040 to 70, 1.490 to 100, 1.770 to 150 and 2.310 above it. Tourist use pays the top rate from the first cubic metre. In 2023, 75.6% of domestic subscribers used less than 40 m³ a quarter, within the two lowest blocks.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
What has actually moved in Tunisia, dated, from the monthly briefings. Each item names the edition it came from.
- September 2026The 50,000 m³ a day Sousse seawater desalination plant entered effective operation on 28 September.From the October 2026 briefing
The full editions are in the briefing archive.
Sources
8 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- Tuniscope, the new drinking water tariffs, reporting the ministerial order published in JORT no. 033 of 1 March 2024.
- WebManagerCenter, on the Ministry of Environment’s 2026 budget, about 90% of it for ONAS, 14 November 2025.
- SONEDE, Sfax seawater desalination plant (first unit 20 July 2024, fourth unit 7 September 2024).
- African Manager, inauguration of the Sfax desalination plant, 23 June 2026.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
- Instance Générale de Partenariat Public Privé, laws and implementing decrees: Law 2015-49 of 27 November 2015, Law 2019-47 of 29 May 2019 and Law 2008-23 of 1 April 2008.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2025 update: political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- SONEDE, 2023 summary report: 75.6% of domestic subscribers used less than 40 m³ a quarter.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.
Sources and notes
Years without a label are award years from the curated log; rows marked on line are dated by commissioning, from the projects register. Register rows without a commissioning date show their stage instead: awarded, with the year recorded, or under construction or operating, with no year. 6 rows in total for Tunisia.