Tunisia has recently been facing a shortage of mineral water, which the Tunisian authorities attribute to heat waves and the accompanying increase in demand for drinking water, in addition to electricity outages, which in turn affect production units.
This crisis sparked a wave of interaction among social media users, who asked about water stocks and the possibility of sending water from Algeria to Tunisia.
What angered Tunisian citizens was that some merchants monopolized the stocks of “canned mineral water” and raised their prices, which prompted the Tunisian authorities to price water bottles in the markets.
Amidst this, some residents took to the streets and closed roads in protest against the drinking water crisis.
What are the causes of this crisis? Did Algeria really intervene and send water?
The National Syndicate Chamber of Non-Alcoholic Beverages Producers in Tunisia attributed the crisis of canned mineral water in the markets to “the exceptional rise in temperatures and the accompanying significant and rapid increase in demand for canned mineral water.”
She said in a statement, "The increase in demand, which in some periods exceeded the usual rates of consumption during the summer season, led to the consumption of an important part of the reserve stocks that producing institutions had built up in preparation for the peak period."
She added, "This increase in demand coincided with disturbances and frequent power outages in a number of regions of the Republic, which affected the normal operation of some production units, causing, in some cases, the cessation of production lines and the breakdown of industrial equipment, which required technical interventions, maintenance work, and restarting before the usual production pattern was restored."
It denied "that there is any intention on the part of any party to create a shortage of bottled mineral water, to withhold production from the market, or to engage in any form of speculation."
She pointed out that the multiplicity of institutions and brands in the sector “prevents any position of dominance that would enable one party to control the quantities offered or the pattern of supplying the market.”
In response to rumors that mineral water was being sent from Algeria to Tunisia, the Director-General of the Algerian Beverage Producers Association, Issa Zalmati, denied the existence of any official exports of Algerian mineral water to Tunisia, stressing that producers did not direct quantities of mineral water to the Tunisian market during the summer of 2026.
Zalmaty explained that the information circulating on social media regarding the export of Algerian mineral water to Tunisia is “incorrect.”
Following the crisis, the Tunisian Ministry of Trade announced new decisions related to controlling profit margins and maximum prices for the sale of bottled mineral water, effective Wednesday, August 19, 2026.
The maximum raw profit margin for mineral water was set at “15 millimes per bottle at the wholesale distribution level, and 15 millimes at the retail distribution level,” noting that the millie is a sub-monetary unit of the Tunisian currency, and 15 millimes is estimated at about half an American cent.
The Ministry published a list of maximum prices for sale to the public according to the capacity of the package, as follows:
0.5 liter: 600 millimeters.
1 liter: 800 millimeters.
1.5 liters: 850 millimeters.
2 liters: 950 millimeters.
Social media users expressed their anger over the drinking water crisis. Lutfi mocks the price ceilings set by the government for mineral water bottles, saying, "The pricing exists but the product does not exist."
Meanwhile, Ethan talks about the anger of Tunisian citizens over the water issue and the high prices in exchange for the decreased purchasing power.
The United Nations Children's Fund, in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union, issued a report on water in Tunisia.
According to the table on water, sanitation, and hygiene services in health institutions, only 56 percent of health institutions in Tunisia had a basic water service in 2023, while the service was available on a limited basis in 44 percent of other institutions.
The report did not record any percentage of institutions that did not have water service, which means that all institutions included in the data had basic or limited access to water.
