TUNIS/GABÈS, Tunisia — A Tunisian court has rejected a request to suspend operations at a phosphate-processing plant in Gabès, a long-contested industrial site that residents and activists blame for years of severe air and marine pollution. The legal challenge was brought by the Gabès bar association, which said it will appeal on Friday after the court ruled that the pollution claims presented so far lacked sufficient technical and scientific proof. Mounir Adouni, head of the Gabès bar association, said the court found that the “allegations of pollution lacked technical and scientific evidence.” He added that no date has yet been set for a final ruling, meaning the case is not over even though the request for an immediate shutdown was denied.
The ruling is a setback for environmental campaigners in a city that has become a symbol of Tunisia’s pollution crisis. Gabès residents have for decades accused the Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT) plant of poisoning the air and sea, harming public health and wrecking local fishing livelihoods. The anger surged again in October 2025, when thousands protested and a general strike effectively shut down much of the city after a toxic-fumes incident intensified fears over cancer and respiratory illness.
An African Development Bank-backed audit in July 2025 found “major non-compliance” at the facility on both air and marine pollution, citing emissions including sulphur gases, nitrogen and fluorine. That finding has become central to activists’ case, especially as the government continues to defend the plant’s economic importance. The dispute has sharpened because Tunisian authorities are not winding the site down. Despite a 2017 pledge to gradually close the plant, the government has since moved in the opposite direction, seeking to expand phosphate and fertilizer output amid high global prices. Reports this week said Tunisia wants production to rise more than fourfold by 2030, while President Kais Saied has described the sector as a “pillar of the national economy.”
That industrial push is being backed financially. On January 28, 2026, the African Development Bank approved $110 million to support the environmental upgrading and rehabilitation of the Tunisian Chemical Group’s production units. Supporters say the funding could reduce pollution without sacrificing jobs and export revenue. Critics argue it risks entrenching a polluting model rather than replacing it. Tensions have also spread beyond the courtroom. Local campaign group Stop Pollution said 12 activists received one-year prison sentences this month over a 2020 protest linked to the plant, a development likely to deepen accusations that environmental dissent is being criminalized.
For now, the factory stays open, the appeal is next, and Gabès remains a flashpoint in the wider fight over whether Tunisia can pursue growth without sacrificing public health
