Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Reused Water in and around Kairouan's Great Mosque
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is to use the water used by the great mosque of Kairouan in the irrigation of a neighboring public garden.
The sources of water are: rain, water from ablutions, water stored in the basement of the mosque
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
In 2023, UNDP launched a series of ambitious initiatives in the city of Kairouan for the installation of dozens of selective sorting bins, as well as assistance to the municipality for the development of an environmental study necessary for the new city development plan.
With colleagues from the Environment Cluster within the UNDP, the issue of water was raised and discussions were carried out to try to propose an initiative concerning water, especially in the context of drought from which Tunisia is suffering.
The Accelerator Lab was asked to participate in this reflection and we proposed a territorial approach which takes into account the question of water by associating it with the immense historical heritage of this thousand-year-old city.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Currently, the filling rate of dams in Tunisia does not exceed 20% and groundwater water resources have recorded a decline, going from 66.1% in 2016 to 58.6% in 2017 and to 41.3% in 2022, thus putting people's daily lives, nature and the economy in childish condition.
Now in Tunisia, the water crisis eclipses all the other crises that the country has suffered since the Covid epidemic. Recently, the World Bank released a report linking weak economic growth to drought while listing its repercussions on all economic indicators: growth, cereal production, imports, inflation, currency stocks, debts...
It is urgent to think about a paradigm shift in relation to water, whether in people's behavior or in the use of alternative technologies such as storage or reused water.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/11/06/tunisia-s-economic-recovery-slows-down-amid-the-drought
https://kapitalis.com/tunisie/2023/05/05/la-crise-de-leau-en-tunisie-selon-raoudha-gafrej/
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Kairouan is an important agricultural region in Tunisia with a vast rural environment characterized by difficulty in accessing drinking water. The drought, in the city or in rural areas, was felt by permanent cuts in tap water and a decline in agricultural products.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
Aware of the historical importance of the great mosque of Kairouan, the Aclerator Lab carried out a territorial investigation by proposing to reactivate the underground hydraulic system of the mosque. The water stored underground will be transferred to a neighboring garden for its permanent irrigation.
It was also proposed to use the water from the abution room for the irrigation of this garden and its transformation into an island of freshness.
We published a blog about this initiative :
https://www.undp.org/fr/tunisia/blog/great-mosque-kairouan-search-lost-water
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
As water scarcity is one of the frontier challenges of UNDP Tunisia, the Accelerator Lab has joined forces with the environment and climate team to explore new entry points, including within the framework of the ongoing programme in Kairouan.
Together, we made a field visit to the city of Kairouan to explore new initiatives and experimentations.
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Environment Cluster-UNDP
National Heritage Institute
Municipality of Kairouan
Ministry of Culture
Kairouan Mosque
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
For months now, the UNDP Environment Cluster has been working closely with the city of Kairouan to draw up a new development plan for the city, with particular reference to flood risk. The Accelrator lab, aware of the seriousness of the issue, especially in these times of drought, carried out a hydraulic exploration in the historic area of the city of Kairouan, which is the district of the great mosque, which has 3 cisterns in its patio. The Accelrator Lab's exploration led to the discovery of an entire hydraulic water storage system existing beneath the mosque, and not just 3 small cisterns. The lab's mission is to quantify the quantities of water that can be stored, the best ways of reusing it for irrigation and cleaning, and to use this water for the existing green spaces around the mosque. tout ce travail a été fait en collaboration avec toutes les parties citées
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
- What is the quantity of water existing in the cisterns of the mosque? - Instead of throwing them into the street for fear of flooding, what are the best uses for this water? - How to create a connection through the waters between the mosque and its neighborhood? - How to implement a pioneering experiment in the management of mosque water in Tunisia? How can we integrate mosques into my national water conservation effort?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Explore, Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Engineering intervened to prove the existence of a basement containing a hydraulic storage system using a geophysical scanner. Behavioral insights are necessary in order to collectively determine, with the residents of the neighborhood, the municipality, the mosque administration and the heritage institute, the best use of these waters.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
In this special case related to the Great Mosque, we found many sources of Data but not updated or were been developed for several years. Direct Gathering of Data and direct immersion and observation were more helpful than searching in old data sources
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
This experimentation is of national importance since it is an intervention on one of the most important monuments in North Africa. Its impact would not only change the journey of visitors to the city but would guarantee a good quantity of water for irrigation and cleaning, thus preserving drinking water, which is increasingly rare.
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6Clean water and sanitation
11Sustainable cities and communities
13Climate action
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