The World Bank’s Dictate for Tunisia’s Oases: Crisis Management or Dependency Management?!
(Translated)

Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 565 - 17/09/2025 CE

In a recent report prepared in partnership with Tunisian research institutions, the World Bank warned of grave risks threatening Tunisia’s oases due to overexploitation of groundwater, climate change, and weak governance. The report highlighted the environmental and economic importance of these oases as “natural gems” and “reservoirs of biodiversity.”

The report also emphasized that the future of oases depends not only on funding and modern technologies, but also on reforming the governance system, noting that oases suffer from overlapping powers between ministries, local councils, and user associations, in the absence of effective coordination.

The report called for the preparation of integrated development plans for managing oases and updating laws to suit their specificities, with the possibility of including them on the UNESCO Biosphere Reserves list.

Al-Rayah Newspaper: History shows that the dictates of the World Bank have brought Tunisia nothing but more misery and dependency, from the cooperative experiment of the 1960s to the economic model based on tourism and services, to the structural adjustment programs of the 1980s and their disastrous effects.

The real solution lies in breaking free from these failed approaches and adopting a strategic vision based on regional integration among the countries of the region, and utilizing natural resources within the provisions of the great Islamic Deen, which calls for the revitalization of the land and the preservation of resources, most importantly water. It also calls for the unification of Muslims, and their integration like a solid building whose parts support each other, so that we can save our oases and all our other resources and transform them from centers of dependency into models of development, sovereignty, and success.