Eli Lilly weight loss drug beats Ozempic in head-to-head study
By AFP
July 8, 2024
At 12 months, the average patient on Eli Lilly's new drug Mounjaro lost seven percent more weight than the average for Ozempic - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File SCOTT OLSON
Patients taking Eli Lilly’s new drug Mounjaro achieved significantly greater weight loss than those on Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, a head-to-head study published Monday showed.
Researchers analyzed the electronic health records of more than 18,000 US patients between May 2022 and September 2023 to compare outcomes among those receiving the two injected medicines, and published the results in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The average age of the patients was 52, more than 70 percent were female, and the average baseline weight was 110 kilograms (242 lbs). Fifty-two percent had type 2 diabetes.
Most patients achieved five percent or greater weight loss after a year, but those on Mounjaro were more likely to lose weight and achieved greater weight loss.
Both drugs, also known by their generic names tirzepatide (Mounjaro) and semaglutide (Ozempic), belong to a class known as GLP-1 analogs that mimic a naturally occurring hormone and make people feel full.
Overall, nearly 82 percent of the Mounjaro group saw five percent or greater weight loss compared to 67 percent of the Ozempic group.
The results were 62 percent versus 37 percent for 10 percent or greater weight loss, and 42 percent versus 18 percent for 15 percent or greater weight loss, all in favor of Mounjaro.
At 12 months, the average patient on Mounjaro lost seven percent more weight than the average for Ozempic.
The stronger efficacy of Mounjaro echoed results seen in the clinical trial that led to its approval, but this was the first time the two drugs were tested against one another.
No significant differences were noted in the rates of adverse events between the two groups, though discontinuation of the drug was common among both sets of patients.
Studies have shown side effects like indigestion, dizziness and mildly elevated heart rate are common with GLP-1 analogs. Severe but rare events include bowel obstruction and pancreatitis.
On the other hand, they can also lower people’s risks of heart attacks and strokes, and there is emerging evidence of benefits against certain obesity-related cancers including kidney, pancreatic, esophageal, ovarian, liver and colorectal cancers.
Ozempic was approved in the United States in 2017 and has since gone on to achieve blockbuster status, while Mounjaro received approval in 2022.
A global health scourge, obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers and complications from diseases such as Covid-19.
Difficult to treat, it is costly for healthcare systems. While its causes can be lifestyle-related, it can also be influenced by genetics.
Appeal confirms acquittal of six police in Swiss ‘George Floyd’ case
By AFP
July 8, 2024
Activists held up banners outside the criminal appeals court in Renens, western Switzerland, as six police officers were acquitted over the death of Mike Ben Peter - Copyright AFP Robin MILLARD
Robin MILLARD
A Swiss appeals court confirmed Monday the acquittal of six police officers charged over the death of a Nigerian man following a heavy-handed arrest, in a case that drew comparisons to George Floyd.
As with the lower court verdict a year ago acquitting the officers of negligent homicide in the case of Mike Ben Peter, Monday’s verdict sparked demonstrations outside the courthouse.
Around 80 people in front of the court in Renens, outside Lausanne in western Switzerland, chanted: “Black lives matter!”, “Justice for Mike”, and “Police kill, the judiciary acquits!”
Ben Peter, 39, died following a violent arrest after he refused a police drug search near Lausanne railway station in early 2018.
In the encounter with the six police officers, he was pinned to ground on his stomach. He died in hospital a few hours later after suffering a heart attack.
His death initially received little attention, but the global outcry over Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020 placed a bigger spotlight on the Swiss case.
– Reliance on forensic evidence –
During the first trial in June last year, a court in Lausanne ruled that the six officers involved could not be found guilty of negligent homicide.
After three days of hearings last week at the cantonal appeals court in Renens, three judges confirmed the lower court ruling, acquitting the officers of negligent homicide.
They also acquitted them on additional charges of abusing their authority, requested by the lawyer of Ben Peter’s family, Simon Ntah.
Ben Peter’s family sat across the courtroom from the six defendants and their lawyers to hear the verdict, which took more than an hour and 20 minutes to deliver in a packed courtroom.
As during the first trial, the judges agreed with the conclusion reached by forensic experts that it was impossible to say for certain that Ben Peter died due to the police intervention.
“The court rejects the appeal of the complainant and releases the police officers from the charge,” the president of the court said.
“The question of systemic racism is not pertinent in judging this matter,” the judges determined.
They said the forensic evidence was “clear and convincing”, adding: “The cause of his death is due to multiple factors.”
Ben Peter “never gave up struggling… with fierce resistance” to his arrest, they said.
“We cannot blame the police for anything. The arrest was justified, legitimate and proportionate.”
– Widow’s quest for justice –
“Mike must get justice, no matter what. We still move forward,” his widow Bridget Efe told reporters outside the court.
“They know that they did wrong. They know what they did.
“Killing my husband, making my children fatherless, and they will go home to their various homes and live happy with their children? Never.
“Justice will be served for my husband.”
Her lawyer Ntah did not say whether the family would appeal to the higher federal courts.
Christian Favre, the lawyer for the first police officer who intervened with Ben Peter, said the court had put challenging questions to the defendants.
“The verdict which is rendered today — much more developed than the lower court verdict — is really a very strong confirmation of their acquittal,” he told reporters afterwards.
He said the defence lawyers were “relieved, happy, but not surprised” by the ruling, which he claimed was “strong, it is well reasoned, it examines all the points”.
As they left the court building, defence lawyers were loudly booed by protesters who chanted “racist justice” and “shame on you”.
– ‘Permit to kill’ –
Demonstrator Sasha, who did not want to give her last name, said: “I cannot believe today that there is an acquittal: a total acquittal, zero culpability, zero notion of guilt.”
“Not even abuse of authority?… It’s like it’s two different realities,” she told AFP.
Saying that Ben Peter was not an isolated case in Switzerland, she added: “It’s really terrible to see that even today, even after all those black men that were killed by police: if there is police involved, justice is just not working.”
Fellow protester Lily added: “It’s like the justice gives a permit to kill for policemen.”
A protest is planned on Saturday in Lausanne.
Deepfakes on the rise: How to spot one and keep secure
ByDr. Tim Sandle
July 8, 2024
Using computers to generate deepfake images. Image by Tim Sandle
Fake and misleading images regularly hit the news cycle, including attempts to trick the public with pictures of such celebrities as Katy Perry and Rihanna.
Deepfake images continue to fool millions of social media users and even news corporations. As the U.S. gears up for its election season, deepfake images are especially likely to spring up all over the place with potentially damaging consequences.
The digital identity security specialists, ID Crypt Global, have produced a guide on how people can all learn to spot fake and misleading images when we see them online. They have provided a preview of their advice to Digital Journal.
ID Crypt discovered that more than 50 percent of people do not know how to spot a fake image online. In terms of advice, the company suggests:
Location – Was an image actually taken where it says it was?
Look for landmarks, city features, and the language of signs or road markings in the background. This technique has been used to reveal faked images from global conflicts where images from previous wars are reported to be from current wars.
Shadows and light sources
You can often spot a photoshopped image through checking whether the shadows align with the light source of the image. If shadows are missing, or incorrectly positioned, the image has probably been faked.
Common sense
Common sense can help you identify a lot of fake images. For example, an aeroplane pilot apparently taking a selfie midair. An open window at this altitude would result in disaster, so it cannot possibly be real.
Hands, hair, and skin
AI images are quite easy to spot if you examine the hair, hands, and skin of the people depicted because these are things that AI really struggles with.
Reverse image search
A fake image can easily be revealed as fake by running it through Google’s powerful reverse image search engine which will usually bring up the original and true image.
Authentic Protection Media
All of these techniques are useful for spotting fake images, but they’re not always easy and not always feasible, especially if you’re viewing on a mobile device. Therefore it’s essential that news and picture agencies use technological innovations to ensure their images are properly verified and cannot be manipulated.
CEO and Founder of ID Crypt Global, Lauren Wilson-Smith, explains the usefulness of the above approach: “The explosion of fake images makes it difficult to trust what we see online. This is unacceptable and has the potential to cause great harm across the world. There are ways for internet users to sniff out fake images when they see them, but none of them are a silver bullet that’s 100 percent foolproof.”
Wilson-Smith adds: “More importantly, though, the burden of spotting fake images and disinformation should not be placed on the shoulders of the public. It is down to those who publish photographs and videos to do everything in their power to ensure that they cannot be falsified or manipulated. This is no easy task given the remarkable pace of deepfake and AI technologies, but the good guys are working just as hard as the bad to ensure that the tools are available to news agencies to protect the world from this increasingly concerning issue.”
American mountaineer found mummified in Peru 22 years after vanishing
By AFP
July 8, 2024
William Stampfl was reported missing in June 2002, aged 59, after an avalanche overwhelmed his climbing party on Peru's Huascaran mountain - Copyright Peruvian National Police/AFP Handout
The preserved body of an American mountaineer — who disappeared 22 years ago while scaling a snowy peak in Peru — has been found after being exposed by climate change-induced ice melt, police said Monday.
William Stampfl was reported missing in June 2002, aged 59, when an avalanche buried his climbing party on the mountain Huascaran, which stands more than 6,700 meters (22,000 feet) high. Search and rescue efforts were fruitless.
Peruvian police said his remains were finally exposed by ice melt on the Cordillera Blanca range of the Andes.
Stampfl’s body, as well as his clothes, harness and boots had been well-preserved by the cold, according to images distributed by police.
His passport was found among his possessions, allowing police to identify the body.
The mountains of northeastern Peru, home to snowy peaks such as Huascaran and Cashan, are a favorite with mountaineers from around the world.
In May, the body of an Israeli hiker was found there nearly a month after he disappeared.
And last month, an experienced Italian mountaineer was found dead after he fell while trying to scale another Andean peak.
‘This poor, miserable life’: new Myanmar clashes turn town to rubble
By AFP
July 9, 2024
Damaged buildings in Kyaukme following clashes between Myanmar's military and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army - Copyright AFP Antonin UTZ
Residents of Kyaukme in northern Myanmar are counting their dead and picking through rubble following fresh fighting that shredded a Beijing-brokered ceasefire between the junta and an alliance of armed ethnic groups.
Last week fighters from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) took control of the town of 30,000 — on the main trade route to China — in the latest setback for the military as it battles opponents across the country.
But air and artillery strikes, as well as rocket attacks, have gutted parts of the northern Shan State town, leaving buildings without roofs or windows, and residents desperate to flee.
Burned-out cars stood in front of one shattered four-storey building, its corrugated roofing strewn about the streets.
TNLA soldiers in combat fatigues stood guard outside the police station, while others carried out patrols and checked vehicles.
Kyaukme resident Kyaw Paing told AFP his home was damaged by a huge blast after he saw a military plane fly overhead.
“Pieces of body — head, hands and legs — were scattered on my roof when the bomb hit some houses nearby,” he said.
“Seven people were killed here, and there was huge damage.
“I don’t want to live this poor, miserable life in the war… I feel so sad.”
– Myriad armed groups –
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad armed ethnic groups who have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
Some have given shelter and training to opponents of the military’s 2021 coup that ousted the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and plunged the country into turmoil.
In January, China brokered a ceasefire between the military and the “Three Brotherhood Alliance”, made up of the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the TNLA.
The truce ended an offensive launched last October by the alliance that seized a swath of territory in Shan state — including lucrative trade crossings to China — dealing the biggest blow to the junta since it seized power.
Other towns along the highway that runs from China’s Yunnan province to Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay have also been rocked by the fighting.
On Thursday TNLA fighters attacked Lashio, around 85 kilometres (50 miles) from Kyaukme, and home to the military’s northeastern command.
One Lashio resident who did not want to be named told AFP she heard artillery firing and airstrikes on Monday morning, but that the town had since been quiet, with some shops open.
A worker at Lashio’s bus station said there were long lines of vehicles queuing to leave, but traffic was slow because of damage to the road outside the town.
Local rescue workers say dozens of civilians have been killed in the latest clashes.
AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment, but the military has said some civilians were killed in shelling by the alliance.
– China diplomacy –
Amid the new fighting, top general Soe Win travelled to China to discuss security cooperation in the border regions, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.
China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say Beijing also maintains ties with Myanmar’s armed ethnic groups holding territory near its border.
Ties between the junta and Beijing frayed in 2023 over the junta’s failure to crack down on online scam compounds in Myanmar’s borderlands targeting Chinese citizens.
Analysts suggest Beijing gave tacit approval to the October “Three Brotherhood” offensive, which the alliance said was launched partly to root out the scam compounds.
The threat of further military air strikes had caused many residents of Kyaukme to try to flee, although fuel is scarce and food prices are soaring.
“We don’t have extra money,” said Naung Naung, another resident.
“We have faced many difficulties — not only our family, but the whole town.
“All residents are very worried about how long this war will go on.”
UK resolves Rwanda asylum cases after govt drops policy
By AFP
July 9, 2024
As part of the deal, the UK has already paid some £240 million ($307 million) to Rwanda - Copyright AFP/File HENRY NICHOLLS
Three asylum seekers who brought court action to block the UK’s attempt to send them to Rwanda had their cases resolved on Tuesday, after the incoming Labour government ditched the policy.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Saturday that the migrant deportation plan forged by the ousted Conservative government was “dead and buried”.
There had already been a spate of legal challenges to the scheme, with the UK Supreme Court in November last year ruling that it was illegal under international law as Rwanda could not be considered a safe country for asylum seekers.
Government lawyer James Eadie told the High Court in London on Tuesday: “In relation to the three named claimants, these claimants’ cases will be fully disposed of and withdrawn subject to the (interior ministry) paying their costs.”
The Labour Party said before last Thursday’s general election that it would ditch the scheme, which the Tories said would deter huge numbers of migrants trying to get across the Channel to the UK on small boats from northern France.
Sixty-five people were brought ashore Monday — the first under the new government — taking the total number of arrivals so far this year to 13,639, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Rwanda, home to 13 million people in Africa’s Great Lakes region, claims to be one of the most stable countries on the continent and has drawn praise for its modern infrastructure.
But rights groups accuse veteran President Paul Kagame of ruling in a climate of fear, stifling dissent and free speech.
A spokesman for his government said Monday that “Rwanda takes note of the intention of the UK government to terminate the Migration and Economic Development Partnership Agreement”.
As part of the deal, the UK has already paid some £240 million ($307 million) to Rwanda, with a further £50 million scheduled to be sent at a later date.
In January, Kagame said the money was “only going to be used if those people will come. If they don’t come, we can return the money”.
However, he later specified there was “no obligation” to do so.
Charity warns about Mediterranean migrant ’emergency’
By AFP
July 9, 2024
After having transferred some migrants to an Italian coast guard vessel, on Tuesday the Sea-Eye 4 was transporting some 170 others to the assigned port in Genoa - Copyright AFP/File Giovanni ISOLINO
German charity Sea-Eye on Tuesday said it had come to the rescue of migrant boats five times in 24 hours, which showed “the state of emergency” in the Mediterranean.
The Sea-Eye 4 responded to the distress calls along with two other rescue charity ships between Sunday and Monday, rescuing some 230 people, including a mother and her baby, it said.
“Five rescues in 24 hours. That shows the state of emergency in the Mediterranean at the moment, and how important it is that we are there to save lives,” the charity said in a statement.
After having transferred some migrants to an Italian coast guard vessel, on Tuesday it was transporting some 170 others to the assigned port in Genoa, in northern Italy, which it said was a six-day round trip.
Since coming to power in October 2022, far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition has sought to stem the arrival of migrant boats into Italy from North Africa.
It accuses the rescue ships of being a “pull factor” — although in reality the vast majority of migrants who arrive in Italy are picked up by the coastguard.
“By sending civilian rescue ships to distant ports… we are losing valuable time in the search and rescue zone, during which we cannot help people in need,” said Sea-Eye Chairman Gorden Isler.
“This policy can have fatal consequences for people seeking protection,” he said.
Italian law requires that NGOs head “without delay” to a port immediately after a rescue is completed — preventing them from carrying out several in a row.
The NGOs argue that it violates maritime law, which requires any ship to come to the aid of a boat in distress.
But failing to comply risks a fine of up to 10,000 euros ($10,725), and potentially the temporary or definitive seizure of the vessel.
Many charity ships have been detained — sometimes repeatedly — for breaking the law, although those detentions are sometimes overturned by the courts.
Sea-Eye said Tuesday it had been alerted to the migrant vessels in distress by the Alarm Phone migrant hotline, but that “all operations have been coordinated with the Italian authorities”.
UK govt hopes to unlock prisons crisis with reform advocate
By AFP
July 9, 2024
The new UK government is facing an overcrowding problem in the country's prisons - Copyright AFP JUSTIN TALLIS
Akshata KAPOOR
Keir Starmer has made a flurry of ministerial appointments since becoming UK prime minister last week but one name has stood out: new prisons minister James Timpson.
Timpson, chief executive of the key-cutting and shoe-repair chain of the same name, is not a member of parliament and has had to be nominated to the upper chamber House of Lords to serve in government.
But he has years of expertise in the sector — much needed with warnings that UK prisons are nearing “breaking point”.
His family-owned services company, founded in 1865, is well known for being one of the UK’s largest employers of ex-offenders and runs training academies in dozens of prisons, with former convicts making up 10 percent of its workforce.
Timpson was also the chair of the Prison Reform Trust and has been vocal about restoring the rehabilitative role of prisons.
“We’ve become addicted to punishment,” he told Channel 4 television in February. “We’re locking people up far too long. And we’re sending people to prison when actually all the evidence suggests prison is not the right place for them.”
Part of the new Labour government’s list of urgent issues it needs to deal with is prison overcrowding, with media reporting as few as 700 spaces remaining in men’s prison facilities.
“Prisons are at absolutely breaking point when it comes to overcrowding, and ministers are going to have to take decisions very quickly,” chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor told the BBC on Tuesday.
Growing backlogs in criminal courts — worsened due to the Covid pandemic — lengthier average sentences for offenders, and increasing numbers of recalled inmates are all adding pressure to the overwhelmed system.
England and Wales have the highest per capita prison population in Western Europe. Numbers hit a record high of just over 88,300 in February, with many prisons over capacity, official figures showed.
– ‘Walked the walk’ –
Some prison reform groups are hopeful that Timpson’s experience and approach prioritising reintegration could turn things around.
“Having seen the system up close, James understands that prisons currently are unable to rehabilitate or hold safely and decently the huge numbers of people within them,” said Andrea Coomber, who heads the Howard League for Prison Reform.
“We look forward to sound, evidence-led policy from the new government, that prioritises rehabilitation, productive sentences, and the use of prison only where absolutely necessary,” she told AFP.
Starmer, a former human rights lawyer and chief public prosecutor, said he picked Timpson because he “hasn’t just talked the talk” but “has actually walked the walk”.
“The prisons minister has huge experience here and has invested a huge amount over many years in relation to prisons,” Starmer said on Saturday.
Timpson is among other senior ministerial positions that have gone to people with expertise in the field.
The new attorney general — the government’s top law officer — is international law expert Richard Hermer, while Patrick Vallance, who was chief scientific adviser during Covid, was given the science brief.
Labour, which blames the prisons “mess” on the Conservatives, is expected to announce plans to release some prisoners early to relieve the pressure this week, continuing the policy introduced last year.
– Rehabilitation –
Karine Solloway, 65, is a former prisoner and co-founder of Open Justice, which advocates for prison reform.
She said she was “concerned” about early releases from a prison system currently unsuccessful in rehabilitating inmates and in need of improved staffing.
Solloway said the path for prisoners to reintegrate into society was difficult. “It is heartbreaking, it is absolutely heartbreakingly poor,” she said of the prison system.
“Unless the people who are incarcerated are proactive themselves, even then it is difficult” for them to be rehabilitated and find jobs, she added.
But she said she was “cautiously optimistic” about Timpson’s appointment.
“He’s the one who knows the problem first hand. He’s the one who has been addressing the problem for a long, long time,” she added.
According to Solloway, people she met who had benefited from the company’s training and employment “were not as disadvantaged as a majority of prison leavers”.
Similarly, multiple Timpson’s employees who had worked alongside ex-offenders recruited by the retailer termed its ex-inmate employment policy as “very good” and “positive”.
One employee in a London store, who did not wish to be named, said he was happy about Timpson’s appointment. “Good for him. Hope it doesn’t change him, he’s a nice guy,” the employee said.
Climate media awards highlight injustice and accountability
By AFP
July 9, 2024
Security staff under cooling fans at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on July 6, 2024 during a record-breaking heatwave - Copyright AFP/File Frederic J. BROWN
Exposing universities that use stolen Indigenous land to boost oil production and turning a daily TV weather forecast into a climate update were among the standout work celebrated at the annual Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards unveiled Tuesday.
The successful entries were hailed by CCNow director Mark Hertsgaard for “setting the tone for what it means to be a climate journalist” and providing “a service to the public and a challenge to journalists everywhere.”
Tristan Ahtone, an editor-at-large for Grist, was honored for leading an investigation revealing how land-grant universities in the United States use stolen Indigenous land for oil and gas production.
Audrey Cerdan, of France Televisions, was recognized after she replaced the national public broadcaster’s traditional evening weather forecasts with “weather-climate reports” that boosted viewer numbers.
Another winner was CNN’s Rachel Ramirez, who filed stories focused on climate justice while also supporting fellow Pacific Islander journalists via the Uproot Project and the Asian American Journalists Association.
News outlets on the roll of honor were Agence France-Presse and the BBC, as well as local outfits like public broadcasters in Louisiana and Connecticut, and newsrooms on the frontline including Philstar.com in the Philippines, the Nigerian Tribune, Uganda’s InfoNile and the People’s Archive of Rural India.
“Judges were astonished not just at the volume of stories but at their consistent quality,” said Kyle Pope, CCNow head of strategic initiatives.
“In every category, story after story was told with passion and care, informing audiences about the most important story of our time.”
Covering Climate Now is a global media project that promotes high-quality news coverage as part of tackling climate change.
A Tunisian village’s fight for running water
By AFP
July 9, 2024
'Most families come to fetch water while we're working, and sometimes we can't do both,' said Djaouher Kammoun, a 26-year-old farmer - Copyright AFP FETHI BELAID
Youcef BOUNAB
In front of a small mosque in central Tunisia, women queue at one of their village’s last water sources, a pipe meant for crop irrigation, but now a lifeline in the parched area.
“We just need something to drink,” said Ribh Saket, 56, under the punishing summer sun as she placed a jerrycan beneath a makeshift tap hooked into the water supply.
Like its neighbour Algeria and large areas of the Mediterranean region, Tunisia suffers from “alert drought conditions”, according to the European Drought Observatory.
But while drought and rising temperatures impact the region as a whole, repercussions are felt twofold in rural areas, where poverty rates tend to be higher.
Tunisia’s national water grid supplies almost all of the country’s urban areas, but only about half of the rural population.
The other half largely rely on wells built by local agrarian associations officially working under the agriculture ministry.
“We’ve been marginalised,” said Saket, whose village of around 250 families had one such well.
But it was shut down in 2018 due to unpaid electricity bills — a common issue among agrarian associations — and the villagers were left without pumps to extract the water for their community in the Sbikha area, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Kairouan city.
Since then, the families said they have been relying on water from wells originally dug up by local farmers to irrigate their lands.
None of these wells have been authorised by the state as they are often contaminated with pollutants and unfit for human consumption due to improper construction and testing.
– ‘Unsustainable’ –
Flashing a scar that ran the length of his abdomen, Ali Kammoun, 57, said he has had two surgeries due to waterborne diseases.
“Half of us have kidney issues,” his neighbour, Leila Ben Arfa, said. “The water is polluted, but we have to drink it.”
The 52-year-old said she and other women “bring the jerrycans on our backs”.
Tunisia, in its sixth year of drought, ranks as the world’s 33rd most water-stressed country, according to the World Resources Institute.
The World Bank says by 2030 the Middle East and North Africa will fall below the “absolute water scarcity” threshold of 500 cubic metres yearly per person.
That amount is already below 450 cubic metres per inhabitant in Tunisia.
More than 650,000 Tunisians, mainly in the countryside, have no running water at home, with almost half of them living far from a public water source, according to a 2023 United Nations report.
Bottled water, costing around half a Tunisian dinar (16 cents) per litre, remains a luxury for the families whose governorate is Tunisia’s poorest.
“We need to find a solution,” said Djaouher Kammoun, a 26-year-old farmer who has been sharing his well water with other villagers.
“Most families come to fetch water while we’re working, and sometimes we can’t do both,” he said, describing the system as unsustainable.
According to the National Agricultural Observatory (ONAGRI), about 60 percent of wells across the country are privately dug and unauthorised.
But while the practise may provide a temporary — albeit unhealthy — solution for some, it exacerbates water scarcity.
A 2022 study by ONAGRI found that Tunisia’s deep aquifers were being exploited at 150 percent their rate of recharge, and groundwater aquifers at 119 percent.
-‘Many have left’-
“Today we are in the same spiral, the same vicious circle, with the same problems,” said Minyara Mejbri, Kairouan coordinator at the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES).
The villagers have protested, blockaded roads, and complained multiple times — all to no avail.
“The governorate said we already had access to drinking water,” said Saief Naffati, a 34-year-old who has been leading his community’s efforts to solve the crisis.
“They told us if we protest, we should own up to it, because the National Guard would arrest us.”
At their wit’s end, many have left the village, Naffati added.
Among them is his brother, Raouf, now living in the coastal city of Hammamet.
Saleh Hamadi, a 55-year-old farmer also struggling with distributing his well water, said “at least 150 families have left”.
“Most of our youth have moved away, leaving their elders on their own,” he said.
“In 2024, why is this still a problem? Why are we still thirsty?”
