Between 2007 and 2018, water-based protests in Egypt received extensive visibility in media headlines. These protests were first sparked by events in a village in the Nile Delta in 2007; since this demonstration, water-based protests, known as Thawrat Al-'Atash or the Thirst Revolution, have become widespread. Nevertheless, the vast majority of academic research looking at social movements in Egypt has focused on urban protests. This paper investigates the dynamics of water-focused protests in rural Egypt. We use a political ecology approach to understand ecological distribution conflicts and perceived unjust distribution of water that was behind the social unrest.The article includes a classification of local-scale water-based protests in rural Egypt, which breaks down their causes and shows how the protest movement is embedded within biophysical, water management and agriculture development politics.

This paper analyses the relationship between small farmers and revolution in Egypt by describing their role in the current uprising and redefining the track and stages of the revolution's development, as well as evaluating the historical relationship between small farmer uprisings and the urban elite. The paper provides a historical reading of the peasant uprisings and the way in which the urban elites have ignored their struggles. The study confirms that revolution is not a moment but a long process socially constructed and the peasant uprising in 1997 was the first spark of a protest wave that culminated in January 2011.

The article questions state land commodification and the expansion of frontiers in land reclamation projects in Egypt. It does so by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the form of in-depth interviews and archival research on land tenure relations in Wadi Al-Nukra, Upper Egypt. In the article, actors and structure dynamics are situated in the wider political economy framework in order to guide both the data collection and the discussion surrounding the results. The key finding was that agricultural development in the desert created a particular class formation and resulted in specific land concentration. It did not lead to the hegemony of agribusiness nor to the success of desert agriculture in solving agrarian questions or issues relating to food security and population redistribution. The coexistence of different legal frameworks, development policies and discourses concerning allocation of state land, all of these coming from different backgrounds, has led to the concentration of property and to cronyism. It also reveals a deepening social differentiation and class formation. The land reclamation project in desert areas is increasingly moving towards an acceleration of the commodification of state land used for production, accumulation and speculation.

Depuis 1950, les villages libanais ont subi des changements considérables dans leur structure. Au Liban Sud, les périodes de conlits, guerres et occupations ont contribué à donner au paysage sa forme actuelle. Les auteurs présentent une étude sociale et spatiale du village de Sinay situé dans cette région, et examinent le rôle que joue un conlit local dans la transformation de ce paysage. Ils utilisent une méthodologie mixte (ethnographie et cartographie) pour établir les liens entre ces transformations et les structures sociales, politiques et économiques. Le paysage a évolué d'un espace principalement agraire vers un espace multifonctionnel marqué par un étalement urbain et les usages multiples du sol. Ces transformations ont été façonnées par l'interaction entre les changements locaux, nationaux et régionaux. MOTS-CLÉS : conlit, usage du sol, transformation du paysage, Liban Sud, photographies aériennes Rural transformation, landscape, and conlict in a village of South Lebanon, Sinay Since the 1950s, Lebanese villages have undergone dramatic changes in their structure. In South Lebanon, periods of conlict, war and occupation have contributed to giving the landscape its current form. We present a landscape study of the village of Sinay in South Lebanon, and analyse the role of local conlicts in the transformations we observe. We used mixed methodology (ethnography and cartography) to demonstrate the links between landscape transformations, social, political, and economic changes. The landscape has evolved from a predominantly agricultural space to a multifunctional one marked by urban extension and multiple land uses. Throughout these transformations are shaped by the interplay of changes at the local, national and regional levels. (JEL: Q15).

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) filling and operation is a highly sensitive issue for Egypt and Sudan. A recently accepted manuscript by Heggy et al (2021 Environ. Res. Lett. 16 074022) assessed the water deficit for Egypt based on different scenarios for the first filling of GERD lake and estimated 31 billion cubic meters per year under a 3 year filling scenario. We would like to present grossly mischaracterized assumptions, inaccurate data, and controversial conclusions found in this accepted manuscript through this rebuttal. Although the accepted manuscript does not include any new analysis of the River Nile Hydrology, the results of previous substantive studies were misinterpreted or ignored. Moreover, we have serious concerns about the basic hydrological assumptions that are the basis for the economic impacts and the potential loss of the Egyptian agricultural lands. The main methodological flaws of concerns are (a) how the deficit is calculated, losses from GERD, especially the evaporation losses that contradicts several previous studies (e.g. Wheeler et al 2016 Water Int. 41 611–34; Eldardiry and Hossain 2020 J. Hydrol. 125708; Wheeler et al 2020 Nat. Commun. 11 1–9); (b) neglecting the normal role of High Aswan Dam (HAD) reservoir and directly linking the deficit of the water budget to an immediate loss of agricultural lands with all other associated exaggerated economic impacts estimates; (c) including highly exaggerated seepage losses from the GERD lake; (d) neglecting the updated situation of Aswan High Dam reservoir levels and the GERD’s infrastructure itself, and (e) quantifying the impacts of potential changes of water level on HAD reservoir on the Nubian aquifer. We herein present a direct fact-checking approach including the studies cited in the accepted manuscript. We believe that this critical comment paper can serve as a basis for defending scientific integrity and contributes to cooperation and peace in the region.