'Integrated Programme for Protection of the Lake Bizerte against Pollution’ Project labelled by UfM member countries

With the labelling of two new regional projects, the UfM Secretariat has doubled the number of labelled projects in the last 18 months.

The Senior Officials of the 43 Members States of the UfM approved during the Senior Officials Meeting in Vilnius on 3-4 October, the labeling of two projects to be promoted by the UfM.

With a view to contributing to the sustainable protection of the Mediterranean Sea, the ‘Integrated Programme for Protection of the Lake Bizerte against Pollution’ will allow to implement sustainable methods of protection and prevention of all sources of pollution “hot spots” that could affect the environmental quality of marine and coastal ecosystems and the quality of life in the region of Bizerte in the North of Tunisia. Connected to the Mediterranean Sea it is also closely situated to natural reserves on land (Ichkeul Park) and in the sea (marine protected areas of Cap Blanc and Cap Serrat) and has been widely accepted for over a decade to be a hotspot of marine pollution of regional impact¹ and has been placed at the top of the depollution priorities of the Tunisian government and within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean initiative Horizon 2020.

With a total budget of over 71.5 million Euros over a 5-year period (starting in 2014), the project, which is promoted and commissioned by the Ministry of Equipment and Environment of Tunisia, will aim to eliminate the main sources of all kinds of pollution which are contaminating the lake or the bordering populations in order to guarantee a healthy environmental state, to secure a level of quality of life and sustainable urban and economic activities such as agriculture, industry, tourism, aquaculture or fisheries.