On November 23, civil society groups convened a high-level meeting in Cairo to discuss the West Delta Irrigation project, which is financed in part by a $145 million World Bank loan. The project supports the construction of an irrigation system that will divert water from the Nile to supply modern, export-oriented farms on reclaimed desert lands that have severely depleted groundwater sources.
The event, which was organized by the Land Center for Human Rights and Habi Center for Environmental Rights, was well attended by officials from the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation, members of opposition political parties, representatives of the World Bank office in Cairo, farmers who will be affected by the project, investors who will benefit from it, geologists, environmentalists and journalists. Amy Ekdawi of BIC and Serge Selwan from the World Bank’s independent complaint mechanism, the Inspection Panel, were also among the participants.
The heated discussion covered topics ranging from the irrigation and agriculture policies in Egypt, to climate change, to the national laws governing the project, to the World Bank policies that should have been applied to this project. The participants raised their concerns about the effects of the project on the Old Lands in the Nile Delta and on the food crisis in Egypt. As this project will be the first to introduce public-private partnerships in the irrigation sector in Egypt, many also questioned the government’s intention to introduce this trend to the entire sector by 2017.
The meeting was considered a success for civil society, in that they were able to even bring government to the table to discuss the project. This represents the first time since the project’s inception that poor farmers downstream of the project have been able to voice their concerns in a meaningful way, as many have criticized the official consultation process as one-sided.
At the end of the meeting, the participants pledged to continue their dialogue with the government, and asked that the government translate the full environmental assessment of the project into Arabic, and make it available to the public. They also threatened to go to court if the government does not provide them with satisfactory replies to the concerns they raised.
Resources
Clash between the officials in the Irrigation Ministry and the farmers affected by West Delta project: a workshop warns against the failure of the projectby Khaled Rouby, El Behira Newspaper, December 3, 2008 (Arabic)
Minutes of the meeting (Arabic)