Dr. Raoudha Gafrej (Tunisia)

Dr. Raoudha Gafrej (Tunisia)

(Water Resources & Climate Adaptation Expert 

| Founder, Univers de l'Eau (Water World)

"Every drop counts; managing water wisely is a matter of survival and justice." Few people embody that conviction as completely as Dr. Raoudha Gafrej — hydraulic engineer, climate scientist, and one of Tunisia's most authoritative and outspoken voices on water.

Tunisia has been living through one of the worst droughts in its modern history. In recent years the country recorded eight dry years in a single decade, with rainfall reported to have fallen more than 55% against the annual average, reservoirs dropping to a fraction of capacity, and household water rationing becoming a fact of daily life. Into that crisis, Dr. Gafrej has spoken with rare clarity. An internationally accredited expert in the integrated management of water resources and climate change adaptation, she has diagnosed the emergency bluntly: it is driven not only by climate change but by decades of poor governance — and she has called publicly for the government to declare drought a national disaster, to treat water as a matter of national security under the highest office of state, and to build a transparent, financed national water plan.

Her authority is built on deep expertise. A hydraulic engineer who spent seventeen years as a university lecturer and researcher at Tunis El Manar University, she has helped shape numerous national and regional strategies in water, environmental economics, and the adaptation of agriculture and ecosystems to a changing climate. According to "100 African Women Leading Africa's Water & Sanitation Future" (AfWASA & RWSN, 2026), she authored Tunisia's National Drought Management Plan, advised international bodies including the World Bank on climate-resilient frameworks, and has been central to restoring wetlands, promoting wastewater reuse, and mentoring engineers to weigh ecological health alongside infrastructure. As founder and General Director of Univers de l'Eau (Water World), she carries that expertise into public education and advocacy — and onto international platforms such as the Mediterranean Water Forum.

Across the Maghreb's rush toward costly desalination, Dr. Gafrej's voice has been a call for wisdom over quick fixes: for demand management, "water sobriety," reuse, and justice in who bears the cost of scarcity. She reframes water not as an engineering problem alone but as a question of governance, equity, and survival.

From the lecture hall to the national stage, Dr. Raoudha Gafrej embodies a truth this campaign celebrates: securing Africa's water future demands not only new technology, but the courage to tell hard truths — and African women are leading that reckoning.

Sources: Goethe-Institut (2026); Agence France-Presse; DevelopmentAid; allAfrica / Green Tunisia Network; 100 African Women Leading Africa's Water & Sanitation Future (AfWASA & RWSN, 2026)