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The nexus as a political commodity: agricultural development, water policy and elite rivalry in Egypt

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  • Harry Verhoeven

Abstract

Thinking of the interconnections between water, food, energy and climate is nothing new in the Nile Basin; it has long been anchored in political struggles. For 200 years, Egypt's political economy has been defined by water use patterns and food security strategies that debunk the technocratic myth that rapid growth, interaction with global markets and technological modernization eliminate poor governance practices and allocative inefficiencies. In contrast, the prism of the nexus as a political commodity illuminates one of modern Egypt's most consequential dialectics: the interaction between the very particular nexus at the heart of the country's political economy, forged through factional strife and sustained by outside discourses and interests, and the economic and ecological ravages of this elite politics. Egyptian history serves as a warning. Today's conversation needs to be deconstructed in terms of how different forms of interconnectivity between water, energy and food are produced and experienced by different social groups. It reminds us to take interconnections not as given, but rather as contested and contestable outcomes from which opportunities for adaptation and transformation do not naturally emerge, but need to be struggled for.

Suggested Citation

  • Harry Verhoeven, 2015. "The nexus as a political commodity: agricultural development, water policy and elite rivalry in Egypt," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 360-374, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:cijwxx:v:31:y:2015:i:3:p:360-374
    DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2015.1030725
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    Cited by:

    1. Barnaby Joseph Dye, 2020. "Continuity or Change in the Infrastructure Turn? Reform of the Technicians’ Realm in a World Bank Dam," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(3), pages 627-651, July.
    2. Alireza Taghdisian & Sandra G. F. Bukkens & Mario Giampietro, 2022. "A Societal Metabolism Approach to Effectively Analyze the Water–Energy–Food Nexus in an Agricultural Transboundary River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-25, July.
    3. Mario Giampietro, 2018. "Perception and Representation of the Resource Nexus at the Interface between Society and the Natural Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.

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