2024-05-23

GAFSA – Phosphate rocks, rich in phosphorus, are the basis for most fertilisers. With growing demand for food worldwide and a growing need for fertilizers, phosphates are quickly becoming one of the most disputed minerals. One of the crucial phosphate basins is located in southern Tunisia, and the EU growing fertilisers market is drying up the area.

The European Commission recently included phosphate in its list of critical raw materials - essential to the future production of goods and services in the EU. In search for alternatives to Russia, another major phosphates exporter, the EU started looking southwards. While Morocco continues to dominate the global market, Tunisia sits on the 4th biggest global reserve of phosphate rocks.  

But phosphate extraction comes at a high price. In the Gafsa basin, where Tunisian phosphates come from, local communities are impacted by water scarcity and pollution. Mining in Gafsa started at the end of the 19th century, under French colonialism. A century later, the exploitation and depletion of a land that would otherwise be one of the richest in Tunisia, continues in ways that are different only on the surface.  

Photo: Daniela Sala.  

Team members

Sofian Philip Naceur

Sofian Philip Naceur is a freelance journalist and former Egypt correspondent.

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Arianna Poletti

Arianna Poletti is a freelance journalist based in Tunisia.

Arianna Poletti
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Daniela Sala

Daniela Sala is an award-winning Italian multimedia journalist.

Daniela Sala
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Supported
€19,500 allocated on 28/08/2023
ID
ENV1/2023/267
Grant
Tags

ONLINE

PODCAST

PRINT

  • Le Paradoxe Du Phosphate — Comment le marché européen des engrais assèche le Sud Tunisien, Socialter, juin-juillet 2024, pp.50-56

COUNTRIES

  • EU
  • Tunisia

FOLLOW UP

  • The photo exhibition project Chemical Colonialism by FADA Collective (of which two members are part of the association) included the photographs from this investigation. The reportage was also presented at the Fuori Fuoco Journalism Festival in Como, Italy (May 8, 2025).
  • Arianna Poletti – who is also a PhD candidate – published an article in the peer-reviewed journal Middle East Critique titled "Extractive Water Policies as a Driver of Capitalism Expansion in the Mediterranean: Analyzing Tunisia’s Commodity Frontier," drawing on data and findings from the investigation, which is cited throughout the paper.
  • The investigation has been discussed and featured on the website of the international think tank Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), which also has a branch in Tunisia.
  • Daniela Sala exhibited photographs from the project at the Indian Photo Festival in Hyderabad (November 21, 2024 –January 5, 2025) under the title The Phosphates Paradox.
  • Arianna Poletti and Daniela Sala spoke about the investigation at the Journalismusfest Innsbruck (Austria) in a panel discussion titled “The Dark Side of the Black Powder” (May 17, 2025)

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