North Africa braces for a dangerously dry future

Fruit sellers in Tunis. Five years of drought have sent the price of produce soaring. [VOA]

"What keeps people in the south in many North African countries are the oases," said Gafrej. "Palm groves create a microclimate - and without them life would be impossible in the desert. But they also consume a lot of water - without it, people will leave."

In Tunis' ancient Medina, social entrepreneur Leila Ben-Gacem is considering ancient answers for her own business, using roof-top pipes and traditional cisterns to capture and store water for the guesthouse she runs.

"This is a system that has been abandoned," she said. "Today, with climate change, with drought, with all the water shortages we've been having, it could be a very important alternative."

At his farm, Karim Daoud is also being creative. He is enriching the hay he feeds his cows with food waste from a tomato processing factory and switching to hardier grape and olive varieties.

Workers are retooling the family farm to include rooms for tourists and business seminars as a way to diversify the family revenue. Daoud's son, who left his job as a chef in Europe, is in charge of the cuisine.

Other farmers are also beginning to shift to more diversified, climate-friendly practices. But bigger changes are essential, Daoud and many others believe.

"We need a new vision when it comes to agriculture," he said, describing a more holistic strategy shared across the Mediterranean region. "This demands a scientific and logistical support for farmers that currently doesn't exist, or only a little."