The Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources aims at modernizing the existing irrigation schemes in the Lower Medjerda Valley, which have been in operation for around 50 years. The aim of the project is to use the available water resources more efficiently, scale up agricultural development and transfer the operation and maintenance of water systems to water user organizations.

This project concerns the modernization of the Chouigui irrigation scheme, which was built in 1978, approximately 30 km west of Tunis. It receives its water from an inlet located just upstream from the Laaroussia reservoir and covers a total area from 1,704 ha.

The project includes the construction of a pumping and treatment facility (a fully automated pumping station and a water treatment plant for water withdrawn from the wadi Medjerda), the construction of two regulation reservoirs, the installation of a subsurface pressurized channel system (backbone and supply network) as well as the rehabilitation of drainage networks and access roads.

The water consumption is measured in real time at different locations in the network and specifically at the outlets supplying the farms. The water charges to be paid by the users is based on a dual pricing principle: a fixed amount set by the lot size and a variable amount depending on the volume of water consumed on the lot.

Operation and maintenance of the irrigation tertiary network and collection of water charges will be assigned to farmer organizations called Groupements de Développement Agricole (GDA).