Notes

1 Networks, authority, and environmental politics in Egypt

1 Although I do not employ the same typology, Clapp and Fuchs’ (2009) work on the “three faces” of corporate power was helpful in clarifying my thinking about forms of environmental authority.

2 For climate change and challenges of adaptation in the water sector for the Middle East and North Africa, see Sowers et al. (2010).

3 For the increasingly important role that courts and the judiciary more generally played in contesting executive power in the late Mubarak period, see Moustafa (2007).

4 While Mann and subsequent authors largely discussed infrastructural authority in the context of elaborating the nature of state power, he was fully aware that these logistical techniques and “inventions” were equally available to social groups. See Mann (1984).

5 As Janos Kornai argued in his now-classic study of state socialism (1992: 13), the use of qualitative, diverse forms of evidence “often leads much closer to an understanding of the truth than many more ambitious analyses on a higher plane that rest upon distorted official data.”

6 Interview with the author, Cairo, May 31, 1998.

2 Managerial networks

1 Kassas’ regional reputation was reflected in receiving the UAE’s first “Zayed International Prize for the Environment” for scientific achievement in the field of environment, awarded in 2001.

2 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 10, 1998.

3 Interview with the author, M. Kassas, Cairo, June 2, 1998.

4 For an overview of the MAB program under UNESCO, see http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=6784&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (accessed March 21, 2010).

5 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 5, 1998.

6 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 5, 1998.

7 Although many other incidents of pesticide poisoning did not receive international press coverage, the US press reported this incident in 1976–7, as the American chemical company Velsicol came under scrutiny for misleading federal regulators at EPA and OSHA about the dangers posed by the pesticide. Velsicol manufactured leptophos, trade-named Phosvel, from 1971 until January 1976, when it was deregistered on the basis of the Egyptian experience, as well as documented illness among workers at the US-based production plant.

8 Interview with the author, High Institute for Public Health, Alexandria, Egypt, June 1, 1998.

9 Interview with the author, Cairo, January 28, 1999.

10 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 2, 1998.

11 Interview with the author, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, February 3, 1998.

12 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 3, 1998.

13 Interview with the author, Alexandria, April 27, 1999.

14 Interview with the author, Cairo, May 6, 1998.

15 Interview with the author, Cairo, May 6, 1998.

16 Interview with the author, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, May 20, 1998.

17 Bilateral donors working in Egypt included the United States (USAID), Canada (CIDA), Denmark (Danida), Finland (Finnida), Germany (KfW, GTZ, FES), Italy, Japan (JICA), the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (DFID). Multilateral donors included the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the Mediterranean Technical Assistance Program (METAP), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Ozone Multilateral Fund (El Baradei, 2001).

18 European Commission/ODI database, 1999.

19 Interview with the author, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, February 26, 1998; interview with the author, USAID EP3 Project, October 29, 1997; interview with the author, Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs, January 15, 1999.

20 Educated Egyptians disproportionately have the opportunity to leave the country to find work relative to the rest of the population. Permanent migration to OECD countries is attainable to only about 1 percent of the Egyptian labor force as a whole and opportunities to move abroad are significantly biased in favor of Egyptians with university education; see Özden (2006).

21 The number of Egyptians working abroad fluctuates significantly in any given year, primarily due to wars and economic crises that limit demand for labor in the Gulf.

22 Since Gulf countries regulate immigration by issuing work contracts, the compilation of these contracts by Egypt’s Ministry of Manpower and Emigration serves as the primary empirical dataset for tracking temporary migration to these countries. The Gulf countries themselves restrict information on expatriate labor, in part because of the politically charged nature of immigration in countries where citizens are far outnumbered by foreign workers (Zohry, 2003).

23 Interview with the author, Alexandria, February 7, 1998.

24 Interview with the author, Nature Conservation Sector, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, June 6, 2007.

25 The PLAID database constructed by Hicks et al. classifies environmental aid as either “brown” aid, for projects that focus primarily on local environmental issues and outcomes in a given country, or “green” aid, meant to address global or regional environmental problems (Hicks et al., 2008: 31). For all donors, the amount of “brown” aid allocated was significantly larger than that for “green” aid. Environmental aid accounted for between 10 and 12 percent of all international assistance during the 1980s and 1990s (ibid.).

26 Interview with the author, director, environmental consulting firm, Cairo, May 30, 2007; interview with the author, project manager, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, June 6, 2007; interview with the author, consultant, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, June 12, 2007.

27 Interview with the author, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, June 6, 2007; interview with the author, environmental consultant, May 30, 2007.

28 Interview with the author, consultant, environmental consulting firm, Cairo, May 30, 2007; interview with the author, project manager, Cairo, June 6, 2007; interview with the author, consultant, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, June 12, 2007.

29 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 30, 2007.

30 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 12, 2007.

3 Persistent hotspots of industrial pollution

1 Interview with the author, Misr International Bank, Cairo, January 20, 1999.

2 Industrial Development Authority, Arab Republic of Egypt, http://www.ida.gov.eg/egmaly_ro5as_seglen.html (accessed August 15, 2010).

3 Figures from the Industrial Development Authority, Arab Republic of Egypt, http://www.ida.gov.eg/Egmaly_en.html (accessed February 2, 2009).

4 Food processing was the single greatest source of solid soluble substances, suspended matter, oils and lubricants, and bio-organic loads in industrial drainage water, particularly from the sugar industry in upper Egypt. The chemical, metals, and engineering industries were the second largest consumers of water in production processes, and dispersed an estimated 2,272 tons per year of toxic waste and heavy metals to waterways (Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency and Ministry of Industry, 1995: 26).

5 Interview with the author, EP3 Project Consultant, Cairo, February 26, 1998.

6 Interview with the author, US Embassy, Cairo, June 15, 1998.

7 Interview with the author, Senior Technical Advisor, Egyptian Pollution Abatement Project, Cairo, February 7, 1998.

8 Interview with the author, EEAA Industrial Compliance Office, Cairo, February 7, 1998.

9 Interviews with the author, Egyptian consultants, USAID Egyptian Pollution Prevention Project (EP3), Cairo and Alexandria, September 16, 23, and 28, and October 23, 1997.

10 Interview with the author, production manager, Misr Chemiwiyyat (Misr Chemicals), Alexandria, June 14, 1998.

11 Interview with the author, Metallurgical Holding Company, Cairo, March 3, 1999.

12 Emerging Markets Information Service (accessed June 18, 2010).

13 Ibid.

14 Interview with the author, production manager, Rakta Pulp and Paper Company, Abu Qir, October 27, 1997.

15 See Article 17, Executive Statutes of the Law 4/1994, issued by Decree of the Prime Minister 338, 1995.

16 Legal provisions for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for new industrial facilities were similarly fragmented among various administrative authorities. Law 4 required new plants to submit EIAs to the “competent authority,” which was to forward these for review to the EEAA. If the EEAA did not respond within sixty days, the project received automatic approval. One of the principal problems was ensuring that the “competent authority” actually forwarded such assessments to the environmental agency. For the sake of expediting review, the environmental agency later classified projects into simple color-coded categories, and a substantial review was triggered only for industrial enterprises deemed high-risk or extremely polluting.

17 Data compiled at author’s request by EP3 staff, Cairo and Alexandria, 1999.

18 Interview with the author, High Institute for Public Health, Alexandria, February 7, 1998.

19 Interview with the author, Project Manager, World Bank Pollution Abatement Project, Cairo, February 3, 1998.

4 Activist networks and anti-pollution campaigns in the provinces

1 An array of governmental authorities controls internal elections, leadership, agendas, and financing of the organizations that ostensibly represent labor, education, and the press. These state organs include the Ministry of Social Affairs, which monitors voluntary associations, the Egyptian Trade Union Federation, which claims to represent industrial and other workers, the Ministry of Information, which oversees media outlets, and the Ministry of Education, which runs public universities and schools.

2 The CDM report noted that urban disease rates, however, were generally higher than in rural areas because of better access to health care by urban residents, resulting in higher reporting rates for diseases, such as typhoid, dysentery, and cholera (termed “acute enteric summer disease” by Egypt’s Ministry of Health).

3 Decree 28, issued by the president of the Academy for Scientific Research and Technology, January 14, 1982, in Arabic.

4 Other committee members included the professors Abu al-Futuh ‘Abd al-Latif, Tharwat Fahmi, Hasan Farid Zaghlul, ‘Uthman ‘Adli Badran, Fahmi Muhammad Ramadan, and Muhammad al-Khatir.

5 Interview with Professor of Environmental Engineering, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria, January 22, 1998.

6 Interview with project manager, Metcalf and Eddy, Alexandria, May 15, 1998.

7 In 1981, a presidential decree merged the two government authorities responsible for potable water and sanitation into one national authority, under the Ministry of Housing, but did not devolve responsibility for revenue collection, expenditures, or planning to the governorates or utilities.

8 Interview with the author, Metcalf and Eddy, Alexandria, May 10, 1998.

9 This account draws on research conducted with Sharif Elmusa; some of our findings were published in “Damietta Mobilizes for Its Environment,” Middle East Report Online, October 21, 2009.

10 Interview by the author and Sharif Elmusa with residents in Damietta, November 22, 2008.

11 For a sample of the satellite coverage, see Al Jazeera Talk, “Agrium: al-Tala‘ub bi Masir Watan,” broadcast on June 17, 2008, http://www.aljazeeratalk.net/portal/content/view/2861/1/ (accessed September 10, 2008).

12 Hoda Baraka interview with Nasser al-Kashif, Cairo, June 1, 2009.

13 The port was subject to Crusader raids several times; for example, in 1169 a fleet from the kingdom of Jerusalem with support from the Byzantines attacked the city, but it was defeated by Saladin.

14 See http://www.oilnergy.com/1gnymex.htm#year (accessed September 12, 2008).

15 The specific shares in the consortium included the following state-owned firms: Egas (Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company) and Echem (Egyptian Company for Petrochemicals) (24 percent) and GASCO (9 percent). The remaining 7 percent was held by Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation (APICORP), an inter-Arab joint stock company owned by the governments of ten member states of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).

16 Slogans translated and rhymed by Sharif Elmusa.

5 Natural heritage, mass tourism

1 The next three sections are adapted from Sowers (2007).

2 Interview with the author, CEO, Tourism Development Authority, Cairo, March 7, 1999.

3 Interview with the author, M. Kassas, Cairo, June 2, 1998.

4 Ibid.

5 Interview with the author, Michael Pearson, South Sinai Protectorates Project Director, Cairo, June 15, 1998.

6 Interview with the author, Alaa D’Grissac, Cairo, June 12, 1998.

7 Author’s communication with John Grainger, October 19, 2011.

8 Interview with the author, Ranger, Ras Mohamed National Park, June 5, 1998.

9 Interview with the author, Cairo, May 4, 1998.

10 Interview with the author, South Sinai Sector Manager, Cairo, January 12, 1998.

11 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 5, 2007.

12 Interview with the author, Ranger, Department of Planning, Nature Conservation Sector, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, June 8, 2011.

13 Ibid.

14 Land designated for tourism inside municipal boundaries was to be allocated by the governorate, or provincial government. Prominent line ministries, such as Agriculture and Housing and New Communities, could also propose zones to be included within their jurisdiction, which were subject to approval by the Ministry of Defense and the Council of Ministers. See Ministerial Decree 933/1988 and Law 7/1991.

15 See Law 142/1981, “Concerning Desert Land.”

16 Investment Law 8 for 1997.

17 Interview with the author, Consultant, Ministry of Tourism, Cairo, February 14, 1999.

18 Interview with the author, Member, Alexandria Businessmen’s Association, Alexandria, June 8, 1998.

19 Interview with the author, Professor, University of Alexandria, San Diego, CA, July 26, 1999.

20 Interview with the author, Sharm el-Sheikh, May 25, 2011.

21 Interview with the author, Program Manager, Gulf of ‘Aqaba Protectorates, Cairo, May 4, 1998.

22 Interview with the author, CEO, Tourism Development Authority, Cairo, March 7, 1999.

23 Ibid.

24 Interview with the author, South Sinai Sector Manager, Cairo, January 12, 1998.

25 Interview with the author, South Sinai Protectorates Program Manager, Cairo, June 15, 1998.

26 Ibid.

27 Interview with the author, Legal Department, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, December 27, 1998.

28 Ships that ran aground or moored illegally on the reefs were fined through a fixed formula that calculated damage as a function of: the area damaged multiplied by the severity of damage multiplied by the time for recovery (which varies by coral species) and the fine per meter. The formula was later updated in consultation with international experts to take account of the fact that recovery times for corals were longer than originally estimated.

29 Interview with the author, Sharm el-Sheikh, June 15, 1998.

30 Interview with the author, Consultant, LIFE Red Sea Project, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, June 13, 2007.

31 Interview with the author, USAID LIFE Project, Cairo, June 13, 2007; interview with the author, USAID LIFE Project, Cairo, June 17, 2007.

32 Details about the resort can be found at http://www.gorgoniabeach.com (accessed October 22, 2011).

33 See http://www.hepca.com/about/supporters (accessed October 15, 2011).

34 Interview with the author, Member, Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association, Cairo, May 30, 2011.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Interview with the author, Land Center for Human Rights, Cairo, February 18, 1999.

38 Interview with the author, Protected Area Consultant, Cairo, January 17, 1999.

39 Interview with the author, Consultant, Nature Conservation Sector, Cairo, June 3, 2007.

40 Interview with the author, Consultant, Nature Conservation Sector, Cairo, May 31, 2011.

41 Ibid.

6 From masqa to ministry

1 Barnes highlights this contrast, and analyzes the production of excess and scarce water at different levels of Egypt’s irrigation system, in her forthcoming book Cultivating the Nile.

2 Like most Egyptian ministries, the Ministry of Irrigation has had several formal name changes. These have included the Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, and others.

3 Guenther Meyer, email communication with the author, August 13, 2003.

4 These estimates encompass the “low” and “high” ranges for population growth provided by the UN Population Bureau, Annual Statistics, 2007.

5 Interview with the author, Institutional Reform Unit, Ministry of Irrigation, May 27, 2007.

6 Interview with the author, Cairo, May 20, 2007.

7 Interview with the author, Center for Environment and Development in the Arab World (CEDARE), Cairo, May 17, 2007.

8 See http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/index.php?id=88&L=0 (accessed December 12, 2011).

9 See http://www.arabwatercouncil.org/index.php?CMS_P=35 (accessed December 16, 2011).

10 See http://www.awacademy.ae (accessed December 17, 2011).

11 See http://www.arabwatercouncil.org/index.php?CMS_P=33 (accessed December 16, 2011).

12 Interview with the author, Institutional Reform Unit, Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, Cairo, May 27, 2007.

13 Interviews with the author, Egyptian water experts, May 2007.

14 Interview with the author, Cairo, May 10, 2007.

15 Several leading expatriate Egyptian hydrologists and geologists have been particularly critical of the government’s mega-projects, arguing that the government should continue to create new cities and communities in the desert and save valuable agricultural land in the Delta, rather than invest in costly land reclamation with uncertain economic returns. There is no doubt that this solution would be the most efficient in terms of scarce water resources. Yet it is also completely impractical. Agricultural land in the Nile Delta, owned largely in tiny-to-small plots, produces some of the highest yields and cropping intensities in the world; however, it is still more valuable, in local market terms, when converted to housing or other urban uses.

16 In contrast to the difficulties faced in attracting investments in land reclamation, however, the government found eager bidders for the state-financed infrastructure contracts to build the large-scale canals and pumping stations required to divert Nile water to large-scale land reclamation schemes. Lucrative construction contracts were awarded to consortiums of international, Arab, and Egyptian contracting firms. The construction of Toshka’s Mubarak Pumping Station was awarded to a consortium led by Swedish/UK Skanska/Cementation International, while excavation of the Branch 3 canal in Toshka went to Abu Dhabi’s Al-Jaber Transport and General Contracting Establishment.

17 Interview with the author, Cairo, January 27, 1999.

18 Ibid.

19 This section includes material adapted from Sowers (2012).

20 Interview with the author, Cairo, June 13, 2007.

21 Interview with the author, Consultant, Branch Canal Water Boards Project, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, Cairo, June 5, 2007.

22 Interview with the author, Consultant, Branch Canal Water Boards Project, the Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources, Cairo, June 8, 2007.

23 Interview with the author, Project Manager, Branch Canal Water Boards Project, Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources, Cairo, June 6, 2007.

24 Interview with the author, Consultant, Branch Canal Water Boards Project, the Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources, Cairo, June 5, 2007.

25 Branch canal user associations were legally ratified by Ministerial Decree 28, January 28, 1999.

26 The two primary laws concerned with irrigation and drainage are Law 12 of 1984 and Law 312 of 1994.

27 Ministerial Decree 506 for 2001, Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, December 10, 2001.

28 See http://www.iwrm2eg.org (accessed April 15, 2012).

7 Environmental politics in revolutionary times

1 Interview with the author, FJP Member Ali Fath al-Bab, Cairo, December 2, 2008.

2 Ibid.

3 Interview with the author, Legal Department, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo, June 7, 2011.

4 Interview with the author, Tourism Development Authority, Cairo, May 30, 2011.

5 Orascom Development Holdings, Projects, http://www.orascomdh.com/en/projects/projects-under-development/el-fayoum-oasis.html (accessed October 30, 2011).

6 In an unusual if not outright irregular pricing scheme, the firm paid only US$28,000, a penny per square meter for the first year of the contract, increasing a penny per square meter every four years, and then from the eleventh until the ninety-ninth year increasing at 2 percent per year.

7 In May 2011, Amer Group gave land in Marsa Matrouh back to the Tourism Development Authority, citing lack of demand for secondary luxury homes in Egypt after the January 25 uprising, and halted its development in Syria with the uprising (Gunn, 2011).

8 As of November 2011, the Facebook group was available at http://www.facebook.com/groups/noportofayoum/. The petition was online at http://www.petitiononline.com/nce3/petition.html, linked to a number of websites concerned with Egyptian conservation and archaeology.

9 Interview with the author, organizer, No Porto Fayoum Campaign, Cairo, May 30, 2011.

10 See http://www.petitiononline.com/nce3/petition.html (accessed October 15, 2011).

11 As of November 2011, Gabal Qatrani remained on the list of tentative World Heritage Sites, while Wadi al-Hitan was approved in 2005 (World Heritage Convention, 2011).

12 Conference information is available at http://www.archaeogate.org/papirologia/event/1202/international-fayum-colloquium-natural-and-cultural-lan.html (accessed February 2, 2012).

13 The full text of the declaration is available at http://www.e-c-h-o.org/fayoum.htm (accessed February 10, 2012).

14 Law 215 asserts that all antiquities “either known or concealed” are state property and subject to expropriation. It defined antiquities as “all movable and immovable objects, which are produced by the arts, sciences, literatures, customs, religions, etc. from prehistorical times to the reign of Ismail.” Law 215 was revised in Law 529 for 1953, Law 24 for 1965, and Law 117 for 1983. The central provisions for defining antiquities and asserting state ownership remained intact, however. The Egyptian Cultural Heritage Association provides a useful summary of Egypt’s laws governing antiquities at http://www.e-c-h-o.org/CHLaw.htm (accessed February 10, 2012).

15 In January 2011, the Supreme Council of Antiquities was made a Ministry of State, similar to the Ministry of Environment. By the fall of 2011, however, it had been restored to its original name, while maintaining a direct line of reporting to the Cabinet. For consistency, the organization is referred to in the text throughout as the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), although it may be found in some of the source material as the Ministry of State for Antiquities.

16 No Porto Fayoum Facebook Page, posting by Rebecca Porteous, June 5, 2011, https://facebook.com/groups/noportofayoum (accessed June 10, 2011).

17 Interview with the author, Sharm el-Sheikh, May 19, 2011.

18 Interviews with the author, Sharm el-Sheikh, May 17–20, 2011.

19 The relevant segment (in Arabic) of the TV show is available in two parts on HEPCA’s Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150237566320095#!/video/?id=245765842108436 (accessed February 15, 2012).

20 Interview with the author, Sharks Bay, Sharm el-Sheikh, May 18, 2011.

21 Interview with the author, Sharm el-Sheikh, May 19, 2011.

22 The periodical is available at http://www.lchr-eg.org/index.htm (accessed February 20, 2012).