Wasted milk, dead chickens: in Tunisia, the heavy price of electricity cuts

Slowly, the backhoe scoops up hundreds of chicken carcasses and buries them in a pit. At this poultry farm in El Fahs, about sixty kilometers from Tunis, recent power outages have wreaked havoc.

The bill is "enormous": "between 1.4 and 1.5 million dinars", approximately 445,000 euros, estimates veterinarian Hamza Bouchrit.

Without ventilation or water, nearly 90% of the poultry perished, the equivalent of "400 to 500 tons of meat" lost, he told AFP. A putrid odor still lingers at the site.

Over the past two weeks, Steg, the national electricity company, has resorted to load shedding, namely rotating power cuts intended to relieve the electricity network when demand exceeds production capacity, in a context of high temperatures and increased air conditioning consumption.

Steg explained that load shedding was unavoidable to avoid a "blackout".

Although heavily criticized for their duration and sometimes unpredictable nature, these interruptions seem to have decreased since this weekend.

- "Disaster" -

With the power outage at the poultry farm, the ventilation system stopped working. The water, supplied by electric pumps, also ceased to flow. The poultry did not survive.

The site did have a generator, but it "is only used for emergencies" and is "not designed to run for more than two or three hours," the veterinarian explained.

"As the power outage lasted longer, it overheated and was no longer functional. And then disaster struck," he said.

On a neighboring dairy farm, Aziz Bouhejba, who raises about fifty Holstein cows, says he had to throw away the equivalent of six days of milking, or about 1,200 liters of milk.

"These are direct losses that are difficult to recover," he says, lamenting long and insufficiently planned outages.

This criticism was also voiced by Conect, one of the country's leading employers' organizations, which denounced the lack of visibility for businesses.

Another sector affected, in the middle of the wedding and party season: pastry making.

Samia Diab, president of the Chamber of Pastry, says she has "never experienced such a situation" in 40 years of activity.

His workshop in El Menzah, in the capital, has been closed for about ten days.

"I had to throw away a huge amount of dried fruit paste and the cold room motor burned out," she says.

"The Steg did not give us time to take precautions, for example to install generators. No precise schedule was communicated and we did not know the exact times of the cuts," she laments.

"Some colleagues had even taken out loans to prepare for the summer season. After these cuts, they feel ruined."

- "Explain the reasons" -

Steg explained that it had tried to be fair, but the cuts varied greatly between neighborhoods and often lasted for long hours, plunging some cafes, restaurants and supermarkets into darkness.

The fishing and fishmongering sector has also been affected, as the price of ice has increased, leading to a rise in the price of fish, according to Mohamed Saddam, president of the Chamber of Fishmongers.

"The price of mackerel, for example, has doubled," he said.

In response to the anger caused by the power and water cuts, Parliament devoted a plenary session to the situation on Monday.

Several MPs denounced the absence of government representatives.

"It's impossible to find an official who will answer you. Go out and explain to the citizens the reasons for this situation," declared MP Adel Dhiaf. "Some have lost their cows (...). Another person lost 2,500 chickens due to the power cuts. Why are we destroying our country in this way?"