There are times when hospitality turns into embarrassment. For a week, we welcomed foreign friends in Bizerte, eager to discover our region and taste the pleasures of the Mediterranean. Their program naturally included swimming in a sea that we know beautiful, pure and generous.
And in fact, our hosts did not stop praising the clarity of the water, the simple joy of immersing themselves in it. But their enthusiasm quickly collided with a brutal reality: the state of dirt on the beach. Bottles, cans, plastic bags accumulated at the foot of the bathers, like a silent provocation.
By tact, our guests did not want to humiliate us. However, they exchanged discreet observations among themselves, but their gestures spoke louder than their words. At the exit of the water, they began to pick up the garbage to put it in a nearby trash can. Taken by surprise, we had to follow their lead, without conviction, overwhelmed by confusion and shame.
How can we explain to visitors that we tolerate such a situation? How to justify that natural beauty is betrayed by incivility and the lack of management?
This contrast between the bright sea and the dirty beach is a wound to the image of Bizerte. This discrepancy between clear water and dirty, devilated, polluted sand does not only concern Bizerte: it reflects a broader reality, that of Tunisian beaches in general, and beyond, our cities and our nature, too often left to waste and incivility.
A citizen challenge
This episode is not anecdotal. It reveals a deep contradiction: we want to welcome, show our riches, but we let our beaches become dumps. The sea remains faithful to its purity. But the sand tells another story: that of abandonment, lack of civic spirit and collective responsibility.
It is time for local authorities, associations and citizens to take stock of this problem. Because every bottle left on the sand is a silent humiliation, every forgotten bag is a slap in the face of our dignity.
Save the image of our beaches
The cleanliness of the beaches is not a luxury, it is a requirement. It conditions the tourist attractiveness, public health and the pride of the inhabitants. Picking up waste should not be an improvised gesture by foreign visitors; it must be a habit, an organization, a shared responsibility.
Bizerte (and far beyond) deserves better than this paradox: a splendid sea and disfigured beaches.
We must act, and quickly, so that our guests leave with memories of beauty, not embarrassment.
Under other skies, cleanliness is a true civic culture
In a previous edition, we mentioned examples of international experiences undertaken by nations that have struggled with this scourge. We do not hesitate, in this case, to recall them with the hope that they be taken as models.
These nations have risen to the challenge and transform cleanliness into a true civic culture.
Rwanda, for example, has banned plastic bags and introduced monthly collective cleaning days, making Kigali one of Africa’s cleanest capitals.
In Singapore, zero tolerance is accompanied by continuous awareness campaigns: cleanliness has become a social norm.
In Spain, on the Costa Brava or in the Balearic Islands, municipal brigades work hand in hand with local associations to maintain the attractiveness of the beaches.
As for Japan, it relies on an exemplary citizen discipline: everyone brings their waste home, even in the absence of public garbage cans.
These examples prove that a change is possible, provided that political will, adapted infrastructure and citizen mobilization are combined.
Tracks for Tunisia
Tunisia does not need colossal means to act. The authorities can launch national campaigns, multiply garbage cans, introduce graduated fines and mobilize schools to form a conscious generation. Local communities can rely on neighborhood associations, recycling cooperatives and citizen cleaning days.
Every gesture counts: a bag picked up, a street cleaned, it’s a rediscovered dignity.
The cleanliness of beaches and cities is not a luxury: it is a condition of dignity, public health and tourist attractiveness. Tunisia has the means to act, provided that it mobilizes its institutions and citizens. Each bag collected is a victory, each street cleaned is a reconquest of our image.
Bizerte, like Tunis, Sousse or Djerba, deserves better than this paradox: a splendid sea and disfigured beaches, living cities but tarnished by detritus. The time has come to turn shame into action, and embarrassment into newfound pride.
