October 25, 2025
In the far southeast of Tunisia lies Gabes, once called “Heaven on Earth.”
A city where green oases once met the turquoise Mediterranean now suffocates under clouds of gas and neglect.
Gabes has become a symbol of environmental and historical betrayal — a crime stretching from French colonialism to the modern state, where economic interests outweigh human life.
From the Oasis of Life to the Land of Slow Death
Historically, Gabes was one of the true jewels of Tunisian beauty, with its rare coastal oases where palm trees meet the sea, and its edges adorned with olive and pomegranate trees in a scene like no other. But this beauty began to wither in 1885, when phosphate deposits were discovered in Tunisia under French colonial rule.
France granted its companies exclusive rights to extract and export Tunisia’s phosphate, building railways and ports to feed European industry.
The French did not see a homeland — only a resource.
Colonialism established an exploitative system that outlived its empire: extract the wealth, and leave the people and the land behind to decay.
The Birth of the Chemical Complex
After independence, Tunisia inherited this industrial structure — and instead of dismantling it, it deepened it.
In 1972, the Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT) was established in Gabes to process phosphate from Gafsa into fertilizers for export.
What was hailed as a pillar of national progress soon became a daily source of death.
Environmental reports reveal that the factory dumps between 14,000 and 15,000 tons of untreated phosphogypsum waste into the sea every day — waste that contains radioactive and toxic elements like radium and radon.
These discharges destroyed the marine ecosystem, turning the Gulf of Gabes into a dead zone — unfit for fishing, swimming, or even life.
The People’s Story — When Air Becomes the Enemy
The people of Gabes no longer see blue horizons. The sea is gray, the air burns the lungs, and sulfur has replaced the scent of the wind.
Children grow up among gases; the elderly age too soon. Respiratory diseases and cancer have become a collective destiny.
After the 2011 Revolution, silence broke. The movement “Stop Pollution” emerged, demanding an end to the environmental catastrophe.
In 2017, the government promised to relocate the most dangerous units, but nothing happened.
Then, in 2021, an explosion killed six workers — yet even tragedy could not awaken the state to act.
Economy vs. Life
But the state, drowning in debt, still sees phosphate as a lifeline. It plans to increase production from less than 3 million tons per year to 14 million by 2030 — ensuring that the disaster deepens.
When mass poisoning and child suffocations struck in 2025, protesters filled the streets. The government responded not with reform, but with tear gas and arrests.
As one resident said simply:
“We’re not asking for luxury. We just want to breathe.”
The Silence of Complicity
For decades before the revolution, pollution in Gabes was a forbidden topic. People feared to speak, and the regime punished dissent.
The factory offered limited jobs, enough to buy silence, reminding workers they were “feeding their families thanks to the plant.”
Today, even as President Kais Saied admits that “the environment in Gabes has been assassinated,” his government does little beyond words, while toxic waste continues to pour into the sea.
Gabes: The Conscience of a Nation
Gabes is not just an environmental issue — it is a moral and political test for Tunisia. It asks: How can wealth become a curse? How can progress destroy life?
Today, Gabes stands between the silence of the state and the greed of industry — between the memory of oases and the reality of ash.
But in the cries of its youth and the courage of its mothers lives a deeper defiance — the will to survive.
“Saving Gabes is not about the environment alone. It is about justice, dignity, and the right to live. Either Gabes breathes again — or our conscience dies with it.”
For the Arabic version, click here.
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