Phosphates & the Political Economy of Environmental Transformation in Tunisia

In this episode of Environment in Context, Huma Gupta speaks with journalist Layli Foroudi. They explore how the story of phosphates can help us understand the political economy of environmental transformation in Tunisia from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first century. This episode discusses phosphate mining towns like Gafsa, railway networks that transport this important resource to coastal cities like Sfax for processing, phosphate trade with India, existing environmental policies, and public protests decrying the phosphate industry's environmental impacts, such as pollution, soil salinization, and water scarcity, in the decade following the Tunisian revolution.