Water in the Middle East: Making Room for Informal Problem Solving

Abstract

Abstract The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is considered one of the most water scarce in the world. Two new books look closely at the prospects for water policy reform in two MENA countries. In Water Politics in Turkey: Structural Change and EU Accession, Vakur Sumer assesses the impacts that harmonizing Turkey's water-management efforts with broader EU legal standards might have on the country's water management. In her new book, Social Capital and Local Water Management in Egypt, Dalia M. Gouda emphasizes the importance of water-management reforms undertaken at the village level. One offers a look at top-down efforts to reform water policy and water management, while the other emphasizes the need for bottom-up efforts that rely on nongovernmental organizations. Presumably, the two together would be sufficient. This review suggests they are not.