[1] Javan, D., « Écologie en eaux troubles. Les dynamiques d'invisibilisation, politisation et publicisation d'un désastre écologique en Iran : le cas de l'assèchement du lac d'Ourmia », Thèse de doctorat, Université de Lyon 2, 2024

[2] https://www.cade-environnement.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hamouchene-extractivisme-et-resistance-afrique-du-nord.pdf

[3]https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2017/10/13/dans-le-sud-marocain-des-manifestations-de-la-soif-contre-les-penuries-d-eau_5200650_3212.html ; https://fr.siyada.org/siyada-board/videos-et-images/zagora-symbole-de-linjustice-climatique-au-maroc/

[4] Will D. Swearingen, Moroccan mirages: agrarian dreams and deceptions, 1912-1986, Princeton, N.J, Princeton University Press, 1987 François Molle, P.P Mollinga et P Wester, « Hydraulic bureaucracies and the hydraulic mission: flows of water, flows of power », Water Alternatives, 2009, pp. 328‑349 Jean-Paul Gachet, « L'agriculture : discours et stratégies », in Michel Camau (dir.), Tunisie au présent : Une modernité au-dessus de tout soupçon ?, Aix-en-Provence, Institut de recherches et d'études sur les mondes arabes et musulmans, Connaissance du monde arabe, 1987, pp. 181‑228

Abstract

For several years now, Maghreb and Middle eastern countries have been confronting numerous ecological crises, including pollution, deforestation, structural drought, water stress and the biodiversity loss. These issues are exacerbated by the intensifying effects of global warming. In response, significant environmental mobilizations have emerged, such as the environmental movements, struggles for environmental justice in Iran from the 2000s onwards[1]; growing concerns about water management and industrial pollution in Gabès, Tunisia [2]; and protests against water shortages in the Zagora oasis region of Morocco [3], to name a few among other examples.

These crises raise fundamental questions about developmentalist policies, particularly evident in agricultural water management, where it has favoured intensive agriculture and the development of large hydraulic infrastructures such as dams and deep wells since the 1960s[4]. For example, in several countries, public action is characterized by a vertical approach based on the paradigm of extractivism, economic development and a discourse of food security. In other contexts, it is also influenced by the interventions of paragovernmental and paramilitary institutions. In most cases, water and environmental policies have been implemented without taking into account the needs of local populations further exacerbating socio-economic inequalities, intensifying competition for access to natural resources, particularly water, to the expense of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups.

As a result, the environmental dimension often remains a blind spot in the design and implementation of water policies in the countries of the Maghreb and the Middle East. Our workshop will explore three lines of thought. The first analysis is the relationship between authoritarian regimes and the environment, and the extent to which they take environmental issues into account. The second examines the socio-political constraints impacting public action in the field of water and the environment in the Middle East and North Africa. The third issue focuses on environmental justice, highlighting water-related conflicts, struggles for environmental justice and their repertoires of action employed in authoritarian contexts.