**1. Introduction**

*1.1. Water Supply in Tunisia*

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and particularly in Tunisia, the limits of water resource use are being reached due to economic development, population growth (expected increase in population of 20% between 2010 and 2050), and water demands associated with new lifestyles [1]. Unsustainable use has led to deterioration of resources and increasing water scarcity.

According to theWorld Health Organization (WHO), water stress begins when water availability per capita/year is less than 1700 m3. When availability is less than 1000 m3/inhabitant/year, there is a water shortage in the country. Below 500 m3/inhabitant/year, water becomes a constraint on development. Tunisia is now in the latter case of maximal water stress. With population growth, the situation is becoming more and more critical [2].

In addition, the MENA region is greatly affected by climate change, i.e., decreasing rainfall and increasing temperatures [3]. In this region, with the largest water deficit in the world, demands for water have exceeded the local capacity to be self-sufficient in food production. In Tunisia, political and socio-economic changes have contributed to the overexploitation of natural resources, leading to pollution and degradation of the

**Citation:** Souissi, A.; Mtimet, N.; McCann, L.; Chebil, A.; Thabet, C. Determinants of Food Consumption Water Footprint in the MENA Region: The Case of Tunisia. *Sustainability* **2022**, *14*, 1539. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su14031539

Academic Editors: Alban Kuriqi, Luis Garrote and Marc A. Rosen

Received: 6 December 2021 Accepted: 25 January 2022 Published: 28 January 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

environment, rural exodus, increasing poverty, and deteriorating health, as well as greater food insecurity of the most vulnerable groups. Food security is currently an important challenge for public policies whose main development objectives are reducing poverty and eliminating hunger. This can only be achieved when each person has, at any time, physical and economic access to a sufficient, healthy, and balanced diet [4]. However, food security is not static. In many cases there are normal fluctuations in terms of availability, access, and use, e.g., due to changes in weather or prices. Nevertheless, it is very important to examine the available production factors in the short, medium and long term to be able to assess a country's food security trends.

Water is one of the most important resources to examine. Water's role in food security is specified by its effects on food production, access to food, stability of supply, health, and nutrition [4]. Countries with higher water resources generally have higher levels of food security [4]. The water scarcity in Tunisia affects both the availability and access to food products, since it directly affects local production. The theoretical foundations and general principles linking the concept of food security to water resources indicate that all the axes of food security as defined by the FAO, namely, availability, access, stability, and even use are linked to water scarcity [5].

Even if the total demand for food grows slowly worldwide, meeting this demand will require a 70% increase in production by the year 2050 [6]. This seems inconceivable given worrying signs of the degradation of natural resources, especially water, and the lack of investment in the maintenance and sustainable use of these resources.

In Tunisia, water supply policies were initially based on intense mobilization of water resources (construction of dams, hill lakes, wells, irrigated perimeters, etc.). These post-independence policies have been insufficient to solve the problems of lack of water resources in some regions. Another solution was the exploitation of unconventional resources such as seawater desalination and wastewater recycling. However, the use of these resources has remained limited and expensive [7]. Subsequently, new strategies based on water demand management were developed. Indeed, this was necessary to rationalize water use and to maximize its productivity. Water demand management is currently a priority of the sustainable development strategy adopted in 2005 by all the countries bordering the Mediterranean. This strategy aims to stabilize demand by mitigating losses and inefficient uses and increasing the added value created by each cubic meter of water used [8]. According to the World Bank [9], in Tunisia, the effectiveness of water use at the farm level has improved from 50% to 75% between 1996 and 2006, which represents a very encouraging result according to global standards. Despite this increase in the efficiency of water resource management and the relative improvement in productivity, the demand for these resources continues to grow. Thus, the management of water demand needs to incorporate not only agricultural production but also the role of consumption. Optimizing the use of water requires involving consumers who play an important role during the final stage of water utilization.

#### *1.2. Water Footprint of Food Consumption*

A new concept to examine this issue, the water footprint, was developed by Hoekstra [10]. It measures the direct and indirect use of water by consumers or producers. In particular, it highlights the pressures exerted globally or locally on water resources. According to Lacirignola et al. [11], diets have an impact on agriculture, the environment, and the interacting economy. Many studies have mentioned the impact of diets and consumer habits on the evolution of the water footprint at the international or national/regional levels and the role this concept could play in overcoming problems of water management in several countries [12–18]. The water footprint of food consumption represents more than 86% of the total water footprint [19]. According to Mekonnen and Hoekstra [19], the Tunisian national water footprint surpasses 2226 m3/capita/year. It is higher than the annual per capita water footprints in other North African countries, estimated at 2044 m3 in Libya, 1715 m<sup>3</sup> in Morocco, and 1606 m3 in Algeria. In Tunisia, the average water

footprint for the main food categories has increased by 31% during the last decades, from 1208 m3/capita/year in 1985 to 1586 m3/capita/year in 2010 [18]. Despite the decline in cereal consumption, the water footprint has continued to increase as a result of increased consumption of animal products. This growth is associated with regional variations in food choices that imply differences in water footprints [20]. Despite the fact that the Mediterranean diet has a lower average water footprint than other diets [21], and that the Tunisian diet is still considered Mediterranean, the water footprint of food consumption is very high compared to the other Mediterranean countries, except Italy and Spain [19].

This leads to our main research questions: what are the main factors that influence the food consumption water footprint of Tunisian households and how to reduce this water footprint? The paper uses a multiple regression model to estimate the relationships between the main relevant variables related to consumption habits, demographic, geographic and socio-economic characteristics of Tunisian households that may affect the water footprint of food consumption. The assessment of the water footprint and the model results may show ways to reduce the food consumption water footprint and can be used to assess potential water demand scenarios as food consumption patterns change in order to reduce impacts on food and water security. Analysis at the geographic and socio-demographic levels helps to inform policy makers by identifying realistic dietary changes, taking into account social and regional disparities to effectively plan interventions and recommendations for a sustainable diet using the existing nutrition programs.

The novel contributions of this work are three-fold. First, building on the analysis of Souissi et al., (2019) [18] we use the household level data to examine factors that affect the water footprint. Secondly, to our knowledge, few studies focusing on the management of water resources in Tunisia have taken into account the water footprint of food consumption. The study of Chouchane et al. [22] who assessed the economic productivity of irrigation water by analyzing the production water footprint of some foodstuffs, is one of the rare works that evokes the concept of the water footprint in Tunisia. A final innovation is integrating socio-economic trends related to food into the assessment of water and food security.

The existing literature includes a number of studies on environmental degradation and agriculture [23–25], but very little on the direct link between food consumption and water resource degradation. At the national level, studies linking the consumption of food products and the management of water resources are rare. To understand this problem that threatens food security, especially in countries facing water scarcity, we have chosen to study this link through the case of Tunisia.

The water footprint of food consumption generally exceeds 90% of a consumer's total water footprint. Using this tool to assess food security in a region, in a country or even at a global scale can be very useful [16,26]. It also helps measure the impact of consumption patterns and food preferences on natural resources. By considering the water footprint of food consumption across the country, we aim to shed light on the relevant variables related to consumption habits and their impacts on food and water security. Indeed, several authors underlined the effect of demographic, socio-economic and geographic variables such as the degree of urbanization, income and poverty on the diet [27,28]. The consumption of dairy products is higher in urban areas (Tunis and central East), where households generally have better standards of living and better access to animal products and processed products [29]. On the other hand, households residing in the northwest and in the centre-west, where the poverty rates are the highest, have the highest tendency to consume cereals [30,31]. In turn, Dehibi and Khaldi [32] underlined the diversification of the consumption of processed animal products and also pointed out the importance of being able to differentiate the behavior of the Tunisian consumer according to socio-demographic characteristics. Recent studies in China analyzed the effect of factors such as region, income, and food waste on the water footprint [33,34].
