While Gabès is still suffocating under the weight of industrial pollution, the Tunisian government is trying to reassure. During a plenary session devoted to the environmental situation in the region, the Minister of Health, Mustapha Ferjani, assured that “the question of Gabès is not only local or environmental, but a national question”, recalling that it directly affects “the health of citizens and their right to a healthy environment”.
The minister promised “practical solutions” to reconcile economic development and public health, citing the choice of “clean industry” as the only possible path. According to him, it is no longer a question of “contrasting the right to work and the right to health”. A statement that sounds like wishful thinking for many residents, tired of promises not kept for decades.
Ferjani also insisted on “collective responsibility” and the “need for coordination between ministries” in order to ensure regular monitoring of the environmental situation and guarantee the rapid implementation of the announced projects.
But in the midst of this chronic crisis of confidence and governance, one announcement particularly attracted attention: that of the creation, within two years, of a center specializing in cancer diseases in Gabès. This medical complex, presented as a flagship measure, aims to offer integrated care to patients in the region and to relieve congestion in large hospitals.
An announcement that does not fail to raise questions. Because if the construction of an anti-cancer center demonstrates a desire to respond to a health emergency, it above all reveals a bitter reality: Gabès has become, over the years, one of the centers most exposed to chronic diseases linked to pollution. Investing in the treatment of cancers without radically addressing their causes amounts to healing the wounds without closing the wound.
The minister also focused on “digitalization” to improve the management of medical data and patient monitoring, referring to the ministry’s future “digital hospital”. But on the ground, the inhabitants of Gabès first expect breathable air, a non-toxic sea and an industry that does not kill slowly.
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