Since the 1960's, Egypt has embarked on an ambitious program to reclaim desert lands to the west of the fertile Nile Delta between Cairo and Alexandria. Today, the West Delta serves as home to predominantly wealthy Egyptians who maintain large mansions and sprawling commercial farms that export fruit and other produce to lucrative European markets.
While the land reclamation program has proven to be vastly profitable for investors, it has also emptied groundwater aquifers, putting the entire scheme in jeopardy. This scenario was envisioned by leading scientists, whose predictions were roundly ignored.
With the amount and quality of groundwater on the decline, the West Delta irrigation project was proposed to bail out these investors by providing water via surface pipes from the Nile. In June 2007, the World Bank approved a $145 million loan to finance the construction of the surface pipes and associated connection system to serve commercial farms in the West Delta.
Overselling employment benefits, underestimating losses
One of the project's main selling points, according to the Bank, is that it will lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs for laborers on commercial farms. However, contrary to the claims of project proponents that the reclamation of additional lands in the West Delta will generate significant employment, the introduction of new technologies is expected to limit the amount of new jobs.
Instead, there is a very real concern that the diversion of water will have a serious impact on the livelihoods of thousands of small farmers in the fertile lands of the Nile Delta downstream of the project, who rely on the Nile to irrigate their fields. Farmers organizations have expressed concern that poor farmers in the old lands of the Nile Delta, if unable to access sufficient water, could find themselves compelled to give up their plots and become laborers in the West Delta.
Prioritizing exports over staples
The project could also have troubling implications on food security in Egypt, as the Bank anticipates a decrease in agricultural production in the old lands downstream of the project as a consequence of diverting water into the desert. The Nile Delta serves as the traditional breadbasket of the country, and produces the vast majority of domestically grown staples such as wheat, as well as rice and other crops.
This issue is especially critical in light of the recent food crisis, which has had a pronounced impact on the poor in Egypt - the world’s largest importer of wheat - where the rising price of bread sparked riots. At the onset of the crisis, World Bank President Robert Zoellick highlighted Egypt as one of the countries most vulnerable to the increased prices of staple foods.
The pressing need to strengthen food security in Egypt raises questions about the Bank’s priorities in funding the project. At a time when the high cost of food puts pressure on poor households, the project will primarily benefit wealthy investors in the West Delta producing for export at the expense of the small farmers who feed the domestic market.
In defending the project, the Bank argues that urbanization is already reducing the amount of land under cultivation along the Nile, and consequently less water is needed for irrigation and more available for diversion to the reclaimed lands. However, the water savings anticipated by the Bank are based on continued construction on existing farmland along the Nile, which is illegal under Egyptian law. By using this as a justification, the Bank is in effect sanctioning this practice, which is further deteriorating the fertile lands and exacerbating pollution of the Nile.
Reducing poverty?
Considering that the project’s beneficiaries will mainly be investors with significant capital, advocates have questioned the Bank’s poverty reduction rationale in pursuing the project. Some have suggested that the World Bank pushed for the government to pass a controversial law last year allowing private ownership and management of irrigation, in order to accommodate the West Delta project as a public-private partnership (PPP). This represents an unprecedented change in Egypt, where irrigation of the Nile has remained under strict public control for thousands of years.
While government authorities have pledged that the irrigation of the old lands of the Nile Delta will remain in public hands, the change in the law and the West Delta project itself are establishing a new precedent in terms of water access in Egypt, which the Bank hopes will be replicated elsewhere in the country. It remains to be seen, however, whether this new approach will guarantee water access for the poor as the country faces increasing water stress.