TUNISIA: JICA lends €250m for the construction of the Sfax desalination plant

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has just signed a financing agreement for nearly 250 million euros for the construction of the Sfax desalination plant in eastern Tunisia. The plant under construction is intended to reduce the problems of drinking water supply experienced by the country's second largest city.

The Tunisian authorities are obtaining funds for the implementation of the project to build a seawater desalination plant in the port city of Sfax. A loan agreement worth 800 million Tunisian dinars (nearly 250 million euros) was signed recently between Shimizu Shinsuke, the Japanese ambassador to Tunisia, Mohamed Fadhel Kraiem, the Tunisian Minister of Agriculture, Mosbah Helali, the President and CEO of the National Company for the Exploitation and Distribution of Water (Sonede) and Shinohara Shunei, the resident representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Tunisia.