How to be Both: Water Shortage and Abundance As Crisis

Extreme weather changes in the Middle East and North Africa have exacerbated the chronic lack and damaging abundance of water. With regional temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, states have engaged in megaprojects designed to improve water security in the region and invested in new water technologies. Yet, while state-led development struggles to catch up with the lack and abundance of water, urban communities have developed their own methods of sustainable access to water, especially in times of crisis like the COVID 19 Pandemic. Communities lie at the crux of water supply, maintenance, and quality and water governance operates as part of self-built networks in urban milieus; and is constructed through grassroots efforts, and heterogeneous configurations of socio-technical relations. Negotiations between state, non-state actors and within communities determine how livelihoods are affected by water in/security such as food security, sanitation, and citizenship. My study explores how communities come together and compete to create networks of sustainable and localized efforts to guarantee access, supply, repair and maintenance of public commons such as water. This research builds on doctoral study on the role of the state in urban water security in Cairo (Egypt) to map infrastructural community efforts in informal and elite neighbourhoods. Since the pandemic and under International Monetary Fund conditionalities, the Egyptian state is steadily removing subsidies for water and energy prices, leading communities to depend on self-help networks to provide their basic needs. I employ qualitative research methods to study grassroots resilience practices to analyse future pathways for development.