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Narratives of Egypt's Aswan Dam Submitted by Ashley Thompson

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Narratives of Egypt's Aswan Dam Submitted by Ashley Thompson Running head: DAM DISCOURSE 1 Research Thesis Dam Discourse: Narratives of Egypt’s Aswan Dam Submitted by Ashley Thompson Towards fulfillment of the Capstone in Geography Western Oregon University DAM DISCOURSE 2 Abstract Dams are structures built to enhance human life in numerous ways by controlling the flow of streams. They can be a controversial topic, as there are environmental costs to the social and economic benefits that dams can contribute to. Egypt’s Aswan Dam, constructed during the 1960s on the Nile River, was built to advance Egypt’s development by controlling flooding, storing water for irrigation, and producing hydroelectric power. Since its construction, many research projects and assessments of the dam have been written to evaluate whether the Aswan Dam has been beneficial or not. These assessments arrive at various conclusions and are often from an economic and social or environmental standpoint. This paper focuses on how the Aswan Dam is constructed as positive or negative through a discourse analysis of four articles. The narratives that emerge in favor of the Aswan Dam tend to view achievements made possible by the dam as outweighing any environmental problems. Problems caused by the dam are also viewed as issues that humans have the ability to solve. Narratives more skeptical of the Aswan Dam tend to view the dam as a drastic solution that will have long-term environmental consequences that might outweigh the immediate benefits. DAM DISCOURSE 3 Dam Discourse: Narratives of Egypt’s Aswan Dam Dams are a familiar sight in today’s world. Major rivers often feature multiple dams and their tributaries are likely controlled in a similar manner. In many developed countries, they are almost an expected feature of the landscape. Dams are built to control streams in ways that benefit human activities. They control the flow of water and downstream water levels, preventing floods and maintaining a more consistent flow all year round, creating a constant supply of water for irrigation. The release of water is often used to create hydroelectric power. While dams can be an essential part of the function of human life, they are not always viewed favorably: dams disrupt the typical flow of water and local ecosystems. Water stored and then released can raise a stream’s temperature or decrease a stream’s sediment load. A cascade of consequences result from the altering of the physical landscape. Human life is not the only life that dams impact, and human life may not always be impacted positively. Dams can be controversial, as they can challenge people’s values and make people ask what environmental costs are worth. Egypt’s High Aswan Dam was constructed in the 1960’s on the Nile River as part of Egypt’s economic development. The river and its yearly floods were brought under control of the dam and significant changes to the river and areas downstream have occurred. Assessments of the impact of the operation of the High Aswan Dam have been conducted in the years following its construction. Topics of assessment include environmental impact (e.g. Walton, 1981) and economic impact (e.g. Abu-Zeid & El-Shibini, 1997). Assessments are conducted to reach a general conclusion about the success or failure of the dam in these areas. These assessments may reach differing conclusions depending on the area of impact of the High Aswan Dam studied. In order to further understand these assessments, the underlying DAM DISCOURSE 4 assumptions about what defines the success or failure of the dam should be examined; for example, the storage of water in a reservoir may have different consequences from an environmental perspective versus an economic perspective. How the High Aswan Dam is viewed can be grounded in how it is assessed and written about. Research needs to be done to analyze the content of these assessments and other writing about the High Aswan Dam to uncover how conclusions about the dam are reached and framed – as success or failure (has the dam been good for Egypt or not?). A discourse analysis could achieve this goal. As of the present, there is little precedent for conducting discourse analyses on dams. One study done by Jórgensen and Renöfält (2013) looked at articles about potential dam removals in Swedish newspapers. They analyzed arguments from both opponents of and proponents for dam removals. They found that the two sides generally framed the services of the dams in different ways, with proponents of removal concerned about the ecosystems that dams impacted and opponents concerned about the cultural values of the dams, such as recreation, as well as the unknown about the real effects of removing the dams. The authors used the same framework to analyze both sides of the argument, showing the complexity about people’s feelings and values about the use of dams and the importance of examining both sides of an issue. There is a greater precedent for discourse analyses in studies on the environment and development. Mühlhäusler and Peace (2006) reviewed discourses concerned with environmental issues and the way in which they have been analyzed and approached across various disciplines. In doing so, their research has provided some guidelines and general information about conducting these kinds of discourse analyses. They list components in discourses that are analyzed: participants (addresser, speaker, hearer, addressee), the purpose or goals, outcomes, form and content of messages, tone, channels, and genre. Through analysis, specific terms used DAM DISCOURSE 5 to discuss the environment have been uncovered that are problematic in a few ways: too vague (such as “pollution”), undifferentiated (“growth” can refer to different types of growing), and misleading (discussions of “fertilizers” that can make soils unproductive). It is concluded that studying environmental discourse draws on knowledge from multiple disciplines and that these studies began in the 1980s amid a rising number of discourses on environmental issues. It is not clear if analyzing these discourses has made any impact on the actual natural environment. Lorente and Alonso (2014) used discourse analysis to look at how environmental issues were treated in Spanish Newspapers. They focused on narratives of scale related to global climate change and how its impacts are discussed at global, national, and local levels. They found that newspaper articles in Spain tend to give readers information about what is being done, on a global scale, to combat climate change and that the effects of climate change are sometimes framed as local problems. However, the readers are given no power in being a solution to climate change; the issues are presented in a way that only gives experts the ability to form solutions and renders the readers themselves powerless at the local level to make any change. These discourses may not only effect how climate change is viewed, but may cause readers to feel helpless and that they cannot do anything about climate change. Gregory and Brierley (2010) analyzed the discourse and development of a vision statement for a river rehabilitation project in New Zealand, Project Twin Streams, to understand if vision statements can be effective by defining goals and promoting action. Specific components looked at were elements in the vision statement, those that decided the vision, and the goals as well as the process to achieve those goals defined. In this case study, they found the vision statement of Project Twin Streams to be effective because it connected the community and local government, laid out what the ultimate goal of the project was, interpreted these goals for DAM DISCOURSE 6 specific areas, and allowed for flexibility in planning and taking steps to achieve the goals set out. Discourses can have the power to motivate concern and action for the physical environment. Wall (1999) was interested in how nature was conceptualized in CBC’s The Nature of Things and how this shaped the way environmental issues could be understood. Largely anthropocentric views were revealed by analysis; nature can be understood as a collection of resources for humans to exploit. Science and technology can aid in this exploitation, but can also be tools used to solve environmental problems. Discourse can influence and restrict the types of environmental problems that are considered and what solutions to these problems are seen as acceptable. Rodela (2012) investigated discourses on the use of natural resources, using the Goričko Landscape Park in Slovenia as a case study. Two main discourses were found: one in favor of agricultural growth and the other in favor of a healthy environment. Both viewpoints have effects on the management of the park. The concluding remarks cite that there has been limited research on how competing or differing discourses have approached resource use. This review contains a diverse body of work that shows the applications, flexibility, and precedent of using discourse analyses when studying subjects in the environment. It also shows what kinds of information can be important or revealed through the use of a discourse analysis and that the study of opposing narratives can be helpful. However, little of this kind of work has been done in relation to dams and how the impacts of dams are discussed. This research uses discourse analysis to answer one main question: How is the Aswan Dam constructed as a positive or negative project? Methods DAM DISCOURSE 7 To try to understand how the Aswan Dam is seen as successful or not, I read through many articles written about the dam. I noticed that some articles written as assessments or evaluations of the effects of the Aswan Dam took a stance. A couple of these articles seemed to have a negative view of the dam, focusing on the harmful ecological effects of the Aswan Dam and the problems the dam has created for Egypt (Walton, 1981; White, 1988).
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