General strike shuts down Tunisia’s Gabes over pollution crisis

As anger grows over a state-run chemical plant, which residents claim caused a pollution crisis, the southern Tunisian city of Gabes has come to a standstill as a result of a general strike and tens of thousands of protesters.

In response to a call from the powerful UGTT labor union, shops, markets, schools, and cafes in coastal Gabes were forced to close on Tuesday as part of the general strike.

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The CGT phosphate plant’s environmental pollution, which has been a source of ongoing environmental pollution for years, was condemned by protesters who held banners in the streets.

Protesters chanted “Gabes wants to live” and “Dismantle the polluting units” as they marched through the city.

The UGTT local representative Saoussen Nouisser said, “Everything is closed in Gabes.” “Our marginalized city’s catastrophic environmental situation is the source of our collective fury.”

In recent weeks, thousands of people have taken to the streets in Gabes, demanding the plant’s immediate closure.

Since he seized extraordinary powers in 2021, President Kais Saied has faced one of the biggest challenges due to the unrest.

Said has referred to the situation as an “environmental assassination” while blaming previous administrations for the spread of cancer, respiratory illness, and the destruction of local ecosystems.

Tunisians were “prepared to struggle for their legitimate demands,” according to Sami Al-Tahiri, the UGTT secretary-general, who stated in local media that the strike had “successed across all segments of the population” and held authorities accountable for failures on social, economic, and environmental fronts.

He claimed that the union was prepared for further demonstrations and mass gatherings.

Problem that dates back a long time

Residents claim that the plant, which was established in 1972 to produce fertilisers, has caused a rise in gas poisoning, cancer cases, and the collapse of marine life as a result of radioactive waste and phosphogypsum being released into the ocean and open air.

According to medical sources and NGOs, more than 200 people have been hospitalized for respiratory distress and exposure to gas in recent weeks.

Local environmental activist Safouan Kbibieh told Reuters, “The plant has poisoned everything: the people, the sea, the trees.” “Materials by Gabes now taste like smoke.”

Authorities this year chose to increase production, calling phosphate a “pillar of the national economy,” instead of a government’s pledge to stop the plant in 2017.