Chapter 1: “To where is Agrarian Politics in
Egypt heading?”.19
Natural Resources Management in Egypt
This report discusses some of the violations that the poor farmers were exposed to in rural Egypt during the second half of the year 2000. Although four years have passed since the implementation of the land tenure law no. 96/1992, the farmers’ living conditions have been worsening more and more everyday. The report discusses this issue in five chapters:
Chapter 1: “To where is Agrarian Politics in
Egypt heading?”.
It is divided into 2 parts:
1.
“The Agrarian Sector and the Illusions
of Integration in the International Market”. It reveals that the main goal of
applying the economic reform policies in
Egypt - which is competition in international markets- is yet unachieved by any
serious examination. The rate of Egyptian imports increased facing a decrease in
the rate of exports.
2.
“Economic Reform and the Strategies
of Terminating the Farmers’ Rights”. It deals with the negative effects of
applying the economic reform policies on small tenants and owners in rural
Egypt. The goals of these policies are to
increase the rate of development of the poor and decrease that of unemployment
and poverty. These goals again are unachieved. This chapter concludes that the
real problem lies in the government’s lack of experience of the best ways to
apply the economic reform policies so that they achieve their planned targets.
In addition, the government completely excluded the farmers from actual
participation in executing its strategies.
Chapter 2: “The Farmers’ Problems with
Governmental Authorities”.
It is classified into four points:
1. “Expelling tenants from their lands”: It exposes the violations that the farmers are exposed to from authorities, such as, the Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Reform Authority, and others – who expel minor tenants and poor farmers from their lands and residences, or totally neglect their problems.
2. “Causing the crops to ruin”: It deals with the thousands of crops that are ruined every season due to the defected pesticides that the farmers use. They take them from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agrarian Society. In addition to that, the officials in charge of such a catastrophe act so recklessly towards this problem, and still the Ministry of Agriculture distributes such pesticides on the farmers.
3. “Neglecting the Irrigation water crisis”: It asserts that this crisis in rural Egypt is mainly due to the officials’ neglect of the agrarian requirements. For instance, they neglect dredging or widening canals. They construct defected projects, such as an unqualified drain water project that drowned many acres soon after it was finished in “Kafr Al Sheik” province.
4.
“Forcing farmers to evacuate their residences”:
It shows a number of cases that were evicted from their houses without legal
cause by Governmental Authorities. There are claimed reasons for the evictions,
surpassing the state’s property even if it’s been decades since that happened or
for any other futile reason. In one of the villages of Al Kalioubeya province,
400 families were evicted from their only residences in which they have lived
for more than 50 years!
Chapter 3: “Problems related to farmers' debts”.
It discusses the farmers’ inability to pay their debts to the DACB. That makes them endangered all the time of being arrested. The bank refuses to take these debts on schedule for the farmers. Meanwhile, the corruption of the bank’s employees increase the burdens of the farmers. These employees blame farmers for funds they embazzel from the treasury. The farmers filed lawsuits at LCHR against these employees after they discovered they might get arrested for crimes they never committed.
Chapter 4 : “The farmers’ health conditions”:
In rural areas, people are totally deprived of the basic services such as health units, clean water and sanitation networks. This neglect in providing health care to these farmers caused a noticeable increase in the rate of serious diseases among them. In addition, lakes and bogs caused the outbreak of a serious disease called “The Elephant’s pestilence” in three villages in Kafr El Sheik province. Had there been a health unit or any medications, the disease wouldn’t have spread like this. The fact is that there is only one doctor in each of these villages.
Chapter 5: “The farmers’ disputes.”
It deals with
farmers’ disputes over ownership, irrigation water, plot dividers and
inheritance. It states that during the first half of 2000, 26 disputes took
place causing the death of 19 citizens, the injury of 96 and 151 arrested.
During the second half of the same year, 25 disputes took place causing the
death of 15 citizens, the injury of 90 and 64 more arrested.
The report ends up in recommendations that might help solve some of the problems discussed in the report, such as:
Giving special
attention to the infrastructure projects such as, sanitation projects.
Providing more
health units equipped with adequate medical requirements.
Including minor
tenants and poor farmers under the umbrella of the health insurance.
Setting strict
regulations that hinder constructing factories inside the agrarian areas.
Using the scientific
methods in disposing of industrial waste.
Ceasing the
evictions of farmers from their lands and residences.
Monitoring the
pesticides distributed among the farmers so that it is made sure that it is not
infected and would not cause the total ruin of the crops.
Resuming the
projects of dredging and widening canals especially those attached to the
farmers’ lands.
Dropping the bank’s
debts off the minor tenants and the youth that did not succeed in farming their
plots.
Finding a formula to
enable the tenants who do not possess lands at all or who do not have contracts
to benefit from the funds of the DACB.
Finally, Land Center for Human Rights appeals to the governmental authorities to discuss the facts mentioned in this report and to consider more seriously the recommendations in it for the sake of protecting the farmers’ health and their rights stated in the constitution and the international covenants