The president came to look at the beach. The argument in Gabès is over whether the complex is replaced or repaired
Kais Saied turned up unannounced at Chott Essalem in Gabès on the evening of 10 August 2026. The neighbourhood backs onto the chemical complex, which has poured untreated phosphogypsum into the sea since 1972. Inkyfada put the rate at 14,000 to 15,000 tonnes a day in June 2026. The state talks of cleanup; Gabès wants the state to carry out the decision it took in June 2017: dismantle the polluting units.
Where they agree
All six agree the state must act. They do not even point at the same pollution: the environment minister talks about phosphogypsum on the seabed, the union about gas in the air.
Where they split
The state's plans keep the complex where it stands and repair around it, and the industry minister marks the limit: the jobs and the public companies stay. Gabès pushes from three sides: the campaign demands the June 2017 dismantling be carried out, the bar asked a court to stop the units, the union called a general strike.
What nobody is saying
No one on the state side says whether the June 2017 decision still stands. The nearest thing to an answer is a cabinet meeting of 5 March 2025 that none of the six mentions: in a single sitting, Inkyfada reports, phosphogypsum came off the official list of dangerous substances and the complex's production targets were doubled.
Go after the sources of the pollution and stop the damage they do, he says, with urgent and effective solutions now and the structural problems treated over the long term. He had given a working group the Gabès file and received its final report in January 2026, saying then that he would take the necessary technical, financial and structural measures. Nothing in the account that relayed his words mentions dismantling or a date.
In November 2025 he said the authorities were working to clean about 9,000 hectares of the Gulf of Gabès seabed of phosphogypsum. That is a promise to clear what has already been dumped; as relayed, it says nothing about stopping the dumping.
Facing parliament during the 2026 budget debate on her ministry, she said Gabès is among the government's priorities and that the president follows the file personally. She reminded the chamber that the state is committed to keeping the jobs and the public companies, and spoke of urgent programmes plus medium and long-term plans to raise production and tighten compliance with environmental standards.
The authorities are still hunting for technical fixes to limit the emissions, he argues, instead of carrying out the June 2017 decision. In Gabès the demand has a slogan: the people want the units dismantled.
”The complex is like a car that is full of worn-out parts and can no longer drive. The only solution now is to replace it”The complex is like a car that is full of worn-out parts and can no longer drive. The only solution now is to replace it
He took the fight to court: the Gabès bar section asked for the polluting units to be halted. On 26 February 2026 the urgent-applications chamber in Gabès said no, for one stated reason, harm not proven, seven months after an audit commissioned by the complex itself documented major breaches of national and international standards. He announced the appeal the next day; the merits have yet to be heard.
His union called a general strike in Gabès on 21 October 2025 over the state of the environment and the gas coming off the complex. The turnout, he said, was overwhelming, and the region faces an imminent danger to its residents' health.