The State, Sewers, and Security: How Does the Egyptian State Reframe Environmental Disasters as Terrorist Threats?

Abstract

On 25 October 2015, Alexandria, Egypt, experienced heavy rainstorms, which overwhelmed the city’s sewer and drainage systems. The storm flooded the city and caused the death of seven residents. How the causes of the 2015 Alexandria floods would be narrated and explained became a subject of national contestation; the Egyptian state claimed that the floods were caused not by failures of urban environmental governance or climate change as others suggested but by an act of terrorism. In this article, I draw on geopolitical ecology and situated urban political ecology to examine the production and contestation of the Egyptian state’s narratives of the floods. In doing so, I argue against using the term authoritarian, which predetermines the state’s function through an inherited set of characteristics. Rather, I start with the how and why of state power to carefully examine the complex relationship between the state and urban environments. This situated approach reveals how failures of urban environmental governance are being reframed by repressive regimes to further justify their rule Key Words: infrastructure, sanitation, security, terrorism, urban environmental governance.

2015年十月二十五日，埃及亚历山大市遭逢暴风雨，淹没了该城市的下水道与排水系统。暴风雨淹没了城市，并导致七名居民死亡。这场2015年亚曆山大市水灾的导因如何被叙述与解释，则成了全国争夺的对象；埃及政府宣称这些洪水并非像若干人所指称的城市环境治理失败或气候变迁所导致，而是由恐怖主义行动所引发。我于本文中运用地缘政治生态学和脉络化的城市政治生态学，检视埃及政府对于水灾叙事的生产与争夺。我通过这麽做，主张不应使用“威权”这个概念，因为该概念预设了国家通过内在的特徵组合进行运作。反之，我从国家权力“如何”以及“为何”之问题开始，详细检视国家与城市环境之间的复杂关系。此一情境化的方法，揭露了城市环境治理的失败如何被压迫的政体重新框架，以进一步合理化其统治。关键词：基础建设，下水道设施，安全，恐怖主义，城市环境治理。

El 25 de octubre de 2015, Alejandría, Egipto, experimentó intensos temporales, que sobrepasaron la capacidad de los sistemas de alcantarillado y drenaje de la ciudad. La tormenta inundó la ciudad y causó la muerte de siete residentes. El modo como las causas de las inundaciones de Alejandría en 2015 serían narradas y explicadas se convirtió en materia de preocupación nacional; el estado egipcio sostuvo que las inundaciones fueron causadas no por fallas de la gobernanza ambiental urbana o por cambio climático, como otros sugirieron, sino por un acto terrorista. En este artículo, me baso en ecología geopolítica y en ecología política urbana situada para examinar la producción y contestación de las narrativas sobre las inundaciones por el estado egipcio. Al hacerlo, arguyo contra el uso del término autoritario, que predetermina la función del estado a través de un conjunto heredado de características. Mejor, empiezo con el cómo y el porqué del poder estatal para examinar cuidadosamente la compleja relación entre el estado y los entornos urbanos. Este enfoque situado revela el modo como las fallas de la gobernanza ambiental urbana están siendo re-enmarcadas por regímenes represivos para justificar aún más su gobierno. Palabras clave: gobernanza ambiental urbana, infraestructura, saneamiento, seguridad, terrorismo.

Notes

1 Although many theories of the state assert that states are repressive, I am using the term repressive here as shorthand to describe the state’s actions in producing and erasing environmental narratives, especially in times of disasters and crisis.

2 To view a sample of these tweets see https://twitter.com/search?q=أسكنريه_بتغرق&src=typd.

3 See this image that circulated widely at https://twitter.com/DrMahmoudRefaat/status/658368752677998592.

4 The online statement can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/pg/MoiEgy/photos/?tab=album&album_id =981095145267482.

5 The Ministry of Interior’s video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57ozD0R6uZ4&feature=youtu.be.

6 This statement can be viewed through the public post at https://www.facebook.com/haytham.elshikh.18/posts/10153708691802505.

7 The Arab African Center for Freedom and Human Rights statement was made available at https://www.facebook.com/Araby.african.center/posts/551062858384359.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship; the Center for Arabic Studies Abroad (CASA); and the Center for Culture, History, and Environment.

Notes on contributors

Mohammed Rafi Arefin

MOHAMMED RAFI AREFIN is an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow supported by the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, New York, NY 10003. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include the politics of waste and sanitation, urban geography, and political economy.