National Water Security: Case Study of an Arid Country: Tunisia [Paperback]

This book shows how the change of water paradigm has become urgent, and provides evidence for new policies that expand water balance to green and virtual water. The issue of water security concerns drinking water supply but also food safety, linked to agricultural policy. Both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture play complementary roles in food security, and the water issue implies a holistic view of water resources. This view constitutes the book's backstory. The reader will find original ideas that can be applied everywhere because the example of Tunisia is typically a basis to illustrate a universally prevalent situation. The book deals with other important issues: desalination, wastewater recycling, water quality, groundwater overdraft, water savings, governance, knowledge valuing, education, information: upgrading the whole water systems for the future implies emancipation of the whole society.

The World Water Issues.- Fifty years of water policies, 1960-2010.- The National Water Balance.- The holistic water balance:  Blue Water, Green Water and Virtual Water.- Managing water demand and unconventional resources.- Water Security in Tunisia: debated issues.- Conclusion.- References.

This book is very clear and easy to read, with an abundance of figures and diagrams. It offers very important information on the planning of water resource developments in arid countries, considering all technical and social alternatives to classical water management based on large infrastructures (dams, well-fields, desalination plants, wastewater treatment, etc.). & I recommend this book to anyone interested in water and particularly to students learning about water resources and management. (Ghislain de Marsily, Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration, Vol. 4, 2019)