Explaining Water Governance in Egypt: Actors, Mechanisms and Challenges

This thesis adopts a governance theoretical framework to analyse and explain the complex and non-linear nature of water governance arrangements in Egypt. Drawing on empirical data collected from fieldwork with key water stakeholders in Egypt, and using a documentary analysis of the major water policy documents, the thesis examines the interplay dynamics between water agents and structures at national, regional and international levels. The work rests on the observation that water governance arrangements in Egypt have changed over the last two decades to denote an ever-growing role for non-state actors. The historic domination and monopoly of state actors in water policy decisions is no longer suitable for addressing the emerging water challenges. Consequently, the water crisis in Egypt is perceived as a governance issue that calls for the collaboration of state and non-state actors. In order to inform the ontological, epistemological and methodological basis of the thesis, the governance analytic framework is combined with theoretical insights from structure-agency accounts. By combining theoretical and empirical enquiry, this work attempts to contribute to and advance beyond the existing literature in three ways. First, it offers one of the first attempts to organise an empirical in-depth case study analysis of the water governance arrangements in Egypt using a multi-level structure-agency framework. Second, it provides a systematic examination and mapping-out of the new water governance systems in Egypt. Third, it presents a rigorous evaluation of the impact of water governance regimes at the regional and international levels on water policy decisions at the national level. Following on from the case study analysis, and guided by the developed theoretical framework, this research has concluded that the Egyptian water governance is dominated by powerful and influential government water bodies. Therefore, any attempt to change existing governance arrangements has to be very carefully planned, taking into account the interaction between water policy agents and the existing water structure. Thus, this thesis will appeal to a diverse audience, including public policy and water governance scholars as well as water experts and policy makers

Rivers of the Anthropocene

This exciting volume presents the work and research of the Rivers of the Anthropocene Network, an international collaborative group of scientists, social scientists, humanists, artists, policymakers, and community organizers working to produce innovative transdisciplinary research on global freshwater systems. In an attempt to bridge disciplinary divides, the essays in this volume address the challenge in studying the intersection of biophysical and human sociocultural systems in the age of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch of humans’ own making. Featuring contributions from authors in a rich diversity of disciplines—from toxicology to archaeology to philosophy— this book is an excellent resource for students and scholars studying both freshwater systems and the Anthropocene

AN INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR ROBUST DECISION-MAKING IN A TRANSBOUNDARY RIVER BASIN: AN INTER-REGIONAL HYDRO-ECONOMIC APPROACH

Allocating limited amounts of freshwater among competing uses is challenging, particularly in transboundary river basins and under the impact of climate change and increasing demand for water associated with population growth and economic development. This calls for decision support tools that inform decision-makers about the consequences of their water management strategies and the impacts of changes in water availability due to climate change and socio-economic development. Hydro-economic models have proven to be promising for helping understand these impacts from an economic perspective. These models need to be integrated and capture both features of the water system and the economic interdependencies to be effective in multi-sectoral and multi-regional river basin contexts. Many of the hydro-economic models, however, adhere to either hydrological or administrative boundaries due to the limited availability of hydrological and economic data at relevant temporal and spatial scales. These models usually consist of a detailed representation of either the water or the economic system and a simplified representation of the other system. This is mainly because an integrated model including a detailed representation of both water and economic systems is extremely data-demanding and challenging to develop due to the different resolutions of datasets associated with these models. This dissertation attempts to address this gap by developing an integrated hydro-economic model that encompasses an entire transboundary river basin and consists of detailed water and economic components to inform decision-making about sustainable and robust water allocation. This is accomplished through these main steps: (1) developing an Inter-regional Supply-side Input-Output (ISIO) model incorporating water supply data for the transboundary Saskatchewan River Basin; (2) testing the temporal transferability of the ISIO model for different years in predicting the economic response of the river basin to changes in water availability under different climatic conditions; (3) coupling the ISIO model with a node-link water resources system model (MODSIM) to create an integrated hydro-economic model; (4) applying this integrated hydro-economic model to identify the sectoral and regional vulnerabilities of the river basin to changes in water supply; and (5) comparing the economic outcomes of the integrated hydro-economic model with those coming from an engineering model (the MODSIM model linked to a crop yield function) and the ISIO model. The contribution of this dissertation is developing an integrated hydro-economic model that couples detailed water resources system and inter-regional supply-side input-output models to identify sectoral and regional vulnerabilities of transboundary river basins to changes in water availability. The findings of this research have advanced our understanding of the cross-sectoral and inter-regional distribution of economic impacts of water allocation strategies and other drivers, including climate change and socio-economic development. This research also investigates, for the first time, the performance of supply-side input-output models that include water under different climatic conditions and over several years. This dissertation serves as an example for future integrated hydro-economic modelling attempts, particularly for informing decision-making about sustainable and robust water allocation in multi-sectoral and multi-regional river basins

High recovery rate solar driven reverse osmosis and membrane distillation plants for brackish groundwater desalination in Egypt

This thesis explores the feasibility of extracting and desalinating brackish groundwater in Egypt using solar driven high recovery rate reverse osmosis and membrane distillation desalination plants to help establishing decentralised agricultural communities. Groundwater properties and potential for sustainable development from seven main hydro-geological systems in Egypt were investigated. It was found that approximately 55% of Egypt’s area has access to brackish groundwater, 47% of which has access to aquifers with moderate to high potential for development. The feasibility of high recovery rate photovoltaic driven reverse osmosis desalination plants was investigated. Using commercial simulation tools, it was found that the plant can operate at recovery rates of 75 to 90% with unit water costs of 0.7 to 1.65 USD/m3 with the typical brackish groundwater composition and depths found in Egypt. Moreover, it was shown that such plants are cost competitive with similar plants driven by diesel generators if the subsidies on diesel are removed. The feasibility of replacing standard photovoltaic modules with photovoltaic/thermal collectors to reduce the energy consumption of the reverse osmosis plant by heating the water was explored. The annual performance of the photovoltaic/thermal collectors was analysed using TRNSYS. It was concluded that for such application, photovoltaic/thermal collectors have no economic advantage. The feasibility of using hybrid reverse osmosis/membrane distillation plants to increase the recovery rate was also investigated. A mathematical model was built using MATLAB to simulate the performance of a commercial full scale spiral wound permeate gap membrane distillation module. The model gave good agreement with experimental results available in the literature. A TRNSYS model was built to analyse the annual performance of the solar driven membrane distillation plant. It was found that the evaporation losses from the cooling tower greatly limited the recovery rate where no more than 10% enhancement was feasible. Such small enhancement in the recovery rate resulted in a 1.9 to 3.6 fold increase in the unit water costs. It was concluded that higher recovery rates are possible with high recovery rate membrane distillation modules with low cooling requirements; and that solar driven hybrid plants can be economically feasible if: a source of waste heat from a renewable energy source is available to drive the membrane distillation process; the specific heat consumption of the process is reduced by 4 folds; and the module costs drop by at least 3.5 folds

Analysis of institutional arrangements and common pool resources governance: the case of Lake Tana sub-basin, Ethiopia

Although Common Pool Resources (CPRs) make up a significant share of total income for rural households in Ethiopia and elsewhere in developing world, limited access to these resources and environmental degradation threaten local livelihoods. As a result, the issues of management, governance of CPRs and how to prevent their over-exploitation are of great importance for development policy. This study examines the current state and dynamics of CPRs and overall resource governance system of the Lake Tana sub-basin. This research employed the modified form of Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. The framework integrates the concept of Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) and Interactive Governance (IG) perspectives where social actors, institutions, the politico-economic context, discourses and ecological features across governance and government levels were considered. It has been observed that overexploitation, degradation and encroachment of CPRs have increased dramatically and this threatens the sustainability of Lake Tana ecosystem. The stakeholder analysis result reveals that there are multiple stakeholders with diverse interest in and power over CPRs. The analysis of institutional arrangements reveals that the existing formal rules and regulations governing access to and control over CPRs could not be implemented and were not effective to legally bind and govern CPR user’s behavior at the operational level. The study also shows that a top-down and non-participatory policy formulation, law and decision making process overlooks the local contexts (local knowledge and informal institutions). The outcomes of examining the participation of local resource users, as an alternative to a centralized, command-and-control, and hierarchical approach to resource management and governance, have called for a fundamental shift in CPR use, management and governance to facilitate the participation of stakeholders in decision making. Therefore, establishing a multi-level stakeholder governance system as an institutional structure and process is necessary to sustain stakeholder participation in decision-making regarding CPR use, management and governance