Social Capital and Local Water Management in Egypt

Dalia M. Gouda

Description

A groundbreaking study of Nile water management in Egypt
From the 1980s onward, billions of dollars were poured into irrigation improvement programs in Egypt. These aimed at improving local Nile water management through the introduction of more water-efficient technology and by placing management of the improved systems in the hands of local water user associations. The central premise of most of these programs was that the functioning of such associations could rely on the revival of traditional forms of social capital-social networks, norms, and trust-for their success. Social Capital and Local Water Management in Egypt shows how the far-reaching social changes wrought at the village level in Egypt through the twentieth century rendered such a premise implausible at best and invalid at worst.
Dalia Gouda examines networks of social relationships and their impact on the exercise of social control and the formation of collective action at the local level and their change over time in four villages in the Delta and Fayoum governorates. Outlining three time frames, pre-1952, 1952-73, and 1973 to the present, and moving between multiple actors-farmers, government officials, and donor agencies-Gouda shows how institutional and technological changes during each period and the social changes that coincided with them yielded mixed successes for the water user associations in respect of water management.
Social Capital and Local Water Management in Egypt is essential reading for anyone working in the field of community based natural resource management in Egypt, including policymakers and practitioners, donor agencies, and civil society organizations, as well as anthropologists and sociologists.

Sujets

• Economic Development
• Economics
• Development
• Business

Informations

• Publié par: The American University in Cairo Press
• Date de parution: 02 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781617977633
• Langue: English

Extrait

This electronic edition published in 2016 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.aucpress.com
Copyright © 2016 by Dalia M. Gouda The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.aucpress.com Protected under the Berne Convention
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978 977 416 763 8 eISBN 9781 61797 763 3
Version 1
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
Background
Aim and Objectives
Social Capital
Community-based Natural Resource Management and Social Capital
The Conceptual Framework
2. State, Society, and Irrigation Management in Egypt
Water Availability in Egypt
Agriculture, Irrigation, and State Policies
The Village
Irrigation Water Management in Egypt
Irrigation Improvement Projects
Methodology
Access to the Field
3. Social Capital and Irrigation Water Management in Kafr al-Sheikh and Fayoum in the 1950s and 1960s
Social Capital in the Village Field in the 1950s and 1960s
Rules of the Game in the Village Field
Community Social Capital
Networks of Social Relationships
Irrigation Water Management in Kafr al-Sheikh and Fayoum: Case Study Areas in the 1950s and 1960s
Conclusion
4. Social Capital and Irrigation Water Management in Kafr al-Sheikh and Fayoum since the 1970s
Social Capital in the Village Field since the 1970s
Rules of the Game in the Village Field
Community Social Capital
Networks of Social Relationships
Irrigation Water Management in Kafr al-Sheikh and Fayoum: Case Study Areas since the 1970s
Conclusion
5. Water User Organizations and Social Capital
Using the Conceptual Framework
Limitations of Putnam’s Social Capital Theory and Approach Based on Empirical Findings
Enhancing the Conceptual Framework
Generalizing the Conceptual Framework
Conclusion
6. Conclusions
Research Conclusion
Reflections on Methodology
Areas of Future Study
Conclusion

Appendix
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Illustrations
Maps
Map 2.1. The Nile Delta and Valley
Map 2.2. Egypt’s Delta governorates
Map 2.3. Egypt with Kafr al-Sheikh and Fayoum governorates
Map 2.4. Kafr al-Sheikh Governorate and its districts
Map 2.5. Fayoum Governorate and its districts
Tables
Table 2.1. Population, water, and agricultural land in Egypt
Table 2.2. Migrant numbers
Table 2.3. Basic data on Kafr al-Sheikh and Fayoum governorates
Table 2.4. WUO command areas and landownership in KSH case study areas
Table 2.5. Water user groups and WUO command areas and landownership in Fayoum case study areas
Table 2.6. Characteristics of the case studies
Table 4.1. Adult literacy and school enrolment since the 1960s
Sketches
Sketch 2.1. Irrigation system in Egypt and the hierarchy of water user associations
Sketch 2.2. Cross-section of the pumping station, stand tank, and mesqa pipelines
Sketch 2.3. Cross-section of the buried PVC piped mesqa
Sketch 2.4. Cross-section of a pumping station stand tank
Sketch 4.1. Gora pumping station command area
Sketch 4.2. Tara pumping station command area
Figures
Figure 1.1. Conceptual framework
Figure 2.1. Primary canal
Figure 2.2. Secondary or branch canal
Figure 2.3. Open unimproved tertiary canal or mesqa
Figure 2.4. Open unimproved quaternary channel or marwa
Figure 2.5. The cultivation of a rice field requires a lot of water
Figure 2.6. Multiple diesel pumps lifting water from the canal
Figure 2.7. Shelter for diesel-operated pumps
Figure 2.8. Shelter for electricity-operated pumps
Figure 2.9. Marwa improvement through lining
Figure 2.10. Marwa improvement through buried pipelines
Figure 3.1. Networks of social relationships in the case study areas
Figure 3.2. Wooden saqiya operated by animals
Figure 3.3. Metal saqiya operated by animals and later by diesel pumps
Figure 3.4. Irrigation opening of the mesqa in Fayoum
Figure 4.1. Individual mobile diesel pump
Figure 4.2. Pumping station with diesel-operated pumps
Figure 4.3. Pumping station with electric pumps
Charts
Chart 2.1. Population growth and water availability in Egypt
Acknowledgments
T he writing of this book entailed perseverance and discipline, in addition to the support of many people without whom I would not have been able to complete it. First I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Stephen Connelly at the University of Sheffied, UK, for his valuable guidance, attention to detail, hard work, and support throughout the preparation and writing of this book. I am sure it would not have been possible without his help. I would also like to thank Dr. Glyn Williams for his useful input.
Special thanks to Eng. Paul G. Weber, German International Cooperation (GIZ) team leader of the Agricultural Water Management Project at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation in Egypt, for his professional and academic support. Thanks to my colleagues at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation for their assistance. Many thanks to all the ministry staff at governorate level in Kafr al-Sheikh and Fayoum governorates who supported me in conducting the field work that allowed me to do this research and contribute to knowledge in this field. The contents of this book do not, however, reflect the official views of the GIZ, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, or the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the book lies entirely with the author.
Last but not the least, my family: to my late father, who taught me the value of knowledge and perseverance, to my mother who was always there for me, sisters and brothers who were always supportive, and the one above all of us, the almighty God, for giving me the strength to continue.
Abbreviations
BCWUA
Branch Canal Water Users’ Association
BCM
Billion Cubic Meter
CAPMAS
Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics
CBNRM
Community-based Natural Resource Management
CD–IAS
Central Department for Irrigation Advisory Services Engineers
ERSAP
Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programme
FaWUOP
Fayoum Water Users’ Organization Project
FWMP
Fayoum Water Management Project
GTZ
Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (German Technical Cooperation Agency); since 2011, GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, or the German International Cooperation Agency)
IAS
Irrigation Advisory Services Engineers
IIIMP
Integrated Irrigation Improvement and Management Programme
IIP
Irrigation Improvement Project
IIP–IAS
Irrigation Improvement Project–Irrigation Advisory Services
IMF
International Monetary Fund
IWM
Irrigation Water Management
KfW
Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (German Bank for Credit and Reconstruction)
KSH
Kafr al-Sheikh Governorate
LWB
Local Water Board
MALR
Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
MWRI
Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation
USAID
U.S. Agency for International Development
WRMRP
Water Resources Management and Reform Programme
WUA
Water Users’ Association on the Mesqa
WUO
Water Users’ Organization (used to refer to all associations at the various hydrological levels)
1
Introduction
Background
Egypt is one of the best-known irrigated agricultural societies in the world. Irrigation used to be operated collectively by local community members (Butzer 1976 in Allen 1997, 2; Hopkins 2005). It was based first on traditional rules, then on directives issued by the colonial regime, and later by national state institutions (Hopkins 2008). Since the 1950s, however, interventions by the Egyptian government in the agricultural and irrigation fields have influenced traditional irrigation practices (Molle, Shah and Barker 2003; Zayed 1998; Bach 1998), which has in turn affected water demand and consumption (Abdin and Gaafar 2009).
These changes, coupled with steady population growth and Egypt’s fixed water share from the Nile, have prompted the government to expand land reclamation. Recently, however, water has become the limiting factor. To alleviate water stress and ensure that water is available to a variety of sectors, efforts have been made to improve the efficiency of agricultural water management through the execution of irrigation improvement projects (Allam and Abdel-Azim 2005). The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and donor agencies working in Egypt assumed that the improvement of irrigation infrastructure and the formation of Water User Organizations would restore cooperation among farmers and collective organization for irrigation water management and agricultural activities, which used to be common in traditional irrigation schemes; this, they thought, would help to reduce the pressure on water resources (Aziz 1995; USAID 1994).