In February 2018, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Tunisian water utility SONEDE had outlined its desalination plans in an ExpressFM radio interview with its president Mosbah Helali. A 50,000 m³/day seawater plant on Djerba costing TND 180 million (US$74 million) was due to open in 2018. Gabès (TND 200 million) and Sfax (TND 900 million) were being planned. In 2017, ten groundwater desalination plants of 2,000 to 8,000 m³/day each were finished for TND 80 million in total; six more were under way.
The report showed Tunisia building small plants for salty groundwater and large seawater plants at the same time; the figures were given after a water supply interruption in several districts.