Scientific and participatory approaches to monitor water-related SDG (SDG-6) in Tunisia

Fehri, Raed [UCL] Vanclooster, Marnik [UCL] Mens, Kim [UCL] Khlifi, Slaheddine [Ecole Supérieure des Ingénieurs de Medjez el Bab, Tunisia]

Together4Water is a scientific project that aims at designing and implementing a participatory approach to monitor the implementation of water-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-6) in Tunisia at the scale of the Medjerda Catchment. The Medjerda catchment is the most important river basin in Tunisia. It plays a sensitive economical role at national and regional level, but also at international level, as it is a transboundary catchment with 30% of the basin situated in Algeria. We introduce a monitoring concept coherent with the indicators’ framework that is negotiated at the UN level but consider the specificity of current and future water database of the Medjerda catchment. In order to boost water data availability in the near future and to foster the engagement of “citizens of today” into science, we integrate the Citizen Science approach in the monitoring concept. We propose the use of cost-effective technologies (innovative smartphone apps) as tools for environmental monitoring and will deploy these tools in the city of Medjez el Bab, which is situated in the center of the catchment. This project involves three target groups of the society: students, farmers, and stakeholders.