IWRM Coastal Protection Programme Tunisia II

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Tunisia's coasts are of great socio-economic importance for the country due to their high population density and economic potential (tourism, industry, fishing and agriculture). 65% of the Tunisian population live in the coastal areas, producing 90% of the country's industrial and tourist output. The threat to part of this coast from erosion therefore poses not only a threat to biodiversity but also a direct threat to the people living in the coastal area and to local economic activities. The program includes a combination of infrastructural protection measures - underwater breakwaters, groynes, dykes - and soft structural stabilization measures - dune stabilization, sand filling of beaches - to protect against erosion in particularly vulnerable coastal areas of the country. In the first phase of the program, these coastal protection measures will be implemented on the island of Kerkennah and in RafRaf. Dune stabilization will be carried out at five other locations. The second phase of the coastal protection programme extends the protection measures to the sites on the Sousse Nord coastal sections and between Radès and Soliman in the Bay of Tunis.