TAP story win
the Best News Item 2019
Tunisia's
coast dying slowly: industrial pollutants are blocking
valleys and environment is heating up
Written by
Abdel
Basset al-Farid
Sixty-year-old Khalid al-Hami, a sad, grueling figure,
straddles a rock off the sea between the suburbs of
Rades and Ezzahra from the governorate of Ben Arous,
near Tunis.
He took a
deep breath and then sighed with regret. The sea was no
longer the one he had known decades ago after the
government banned swimming in this area in 2017 as a
result of pollution.
The southern
suburb was dubbed the Pearl of the Gulf; the destination
of holidaymakers from all regions, but since the early
1980s it has turned into a quagmire-like beach before
the Ministry of Health classified some of its 19 beaches
on the Tunisian coastline as polluted and prevented
swimming there.
Khaled
recalls the early 1980s when wave breakers were set up
to repel the sea, but the way they were placed randomly
disrupted its natural movement to a large extent.
The situation
has exacerbated with the influx of polluted water and
industrial waste from surrounding facilities through
wadis tumbling towards the besieged shoreline.
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MAP story win
the Best News Item 2018
EU-Migration
Migration: After the Balkan, the central Mediterranean
route makes EU dizzy
Written by:
Rahal Taoussi
Brussels -
After drying up the migratory route of the Balkans
thanks to the agreement with Turkey in March 2016, the
28 countries of the European Union have to deal with the
rising central Mediterranean route, which gives a hard
time to the European leaders.
Overwhelmed
by incessant flows of migrants because of civil wars,
particularly in Syria and Iraq, the EU and Turkey
concluded on March 18, 2016, a comprehensive plan to
reduce migration to the old continent. The agreement,
which stipulated for each Syrian returned to Turkey from
the Greek islands, another Syrian is resettled from
Turkey to the EU, up to a maximum of 72,000 people, with
financial counterparts for Ankara, has drastically
reduced the arrivals of refugees.
At present,
the 28 of the EU are working to dry up the flow of
refugees and asylum seekers from the central
Mediterranean, especially through Libya.
In
preparation for the meeting of Heads of State or
Government to be held in Malta tomorrow, the European
Commission and EU High Representative Federica Mogherini
presented a few days ago their contribution to the
discussions on the how to "better manage migration and
save lives" along the Central Mediterranean route.
The
Commission and the High Representative have outlined a
number of additional measures to strengthen the EU's
efforts along this route, in particular with regard to
Libya and its region.
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APS get distinction for
the news item 2018
Rat extermination, a risky operation in
Oran's Habibas Islands
Written by
Ms
Lamia Brahimi
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ATA get
distinction for the news item 2018
"...
thirsty for a "rescuing" hand
to come"
Written by
Zina Tosku
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