ERPAD – Agriculture and water stress in the Mediterranean: a common challenge for Italy and Tunisia
Water management is one of the most pressing challenges facing Mediterranean agriculture.
September, 2026
Although Sicily and Tunisia have different territorial characteristics, both are increasingly exposed to droughts, heatwaves, irregular rainfall and extreme weather events, with direct impacts on water availability and the sustainability of agricultural production.
Within the framework of the ERPAD – Eau, ressource pour l’agriculture de demain project, co-financed by the INTERREG NEXT Italy–Tunisia Programme, a stuty was carried out to analyse these dynamics in the project’s target areas: the provinces of Catania, Messina and Ragusa in Sicily, and the governorates of Sousse and Nabeul in Tunisia.
Key findings from the ERPAD Study in the target territories
The data highlight significant pressure from agricultural production on available water resources.
- In Sicily, the agricultural sector uses approximately 693 million cubic metres of water per year and, in 2024, 99.2% of agricultural holdings reported difficulties related to irrigation.
- In Tunisia, agriculture accounts for approximately 85.95% of the total volume of water used in the country. This pressure is compounded by declining inflows to dams and growing dependence on groundwater. In 2024, the average groundwater exploitation rate reached 133.3%, with even higher levels recorded in the hydrographic regions covering Nabeul and Sousse.
In this context, more efficient water management is becoming a key factor not only from an environmental perspective, but also for the resilience and competitiveness of agricultural enterprises.
This is precisely the challenge addressed by ERPAD, which supports 30 fruit-growing enterprises – 15 in Ragusa, Messina and Catania, in Sicily and 15 in Sousse and Nabeul governorates in Tunisia – in developing their farm-level water balance, identifying measures to improve water-use efficiency, and defining sustainable investment plans.
© Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons
