Water Reuse Irrigation, Gender, and Poverty Inequalities in Kafr El Sheikh, Egypt

Résumé fourni par la source

Feminist researchers have long critiqued the trend in development policy and practice to narrowly define women’s empowerment by their engagement in productive work. In this chapter, we demonstrate that enthusiasm surrounding the increasing engagement of poor women in agricultural work overlooks the combined challenges of economic, water, and ecological crises, alongside persisting patriarchy and increasing poverty. We discuss the water-reuse irrigation work in Kafr El Sheikh, an area north of Cairo in the Nile Delta. Women’s increasing roles in water-reuse irrigation offer limited economic gains and are risk-prone and insecure. Analyzing data from focus group discussions with 170 water-reuse irrigators and in-depth discussions with ten irrigators, we analyze the everyday experiences of polluted drainage water reuse. Our findings point to women’s onerous domestic and productive work burdens and their anxiety in working with and consuming crops grown with poor quality water. We learn of the limited scope they have in negotiating the increasing demands on their time and labor and exploring other livelihood options. A feminist political ecology lens makes visible that gendered dimensions of water-reuse irrigation are rooted in the colonial legacy of irrigation, a persisting patriarchal system, and the political economy of agriculture in an arid geography.

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