This paper explores the politics of water scarcity in Egypt. Tracking the flow of water from the Nile, through a series of dams and barrages, 30,000km of public canals and 80,000km of private canals to the farmers’ fields, this paper focuses on the politics surrounding the distribution and use of water in Egypt, probing the spaces of scarcity and those of plenty. The paper brings together the diverse set of actors who have a stake in this resource, from the farmers who use it in the fields, to the policy makers who plan for its use, and the donors who have their own perspectives on how the resource should be managed. Drawing on a year of ethnographic fieldwork, living in a village in Fayoum governorate and working within the Fayoum Irrigation Department, and interviews with policy makers and donors in Cairo, this paper examines three central questions. Firstly, how is water scarcity variously understood by international donors working in water-related programs, officials in the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation’s central and regional departments, academics, and farmers? Secondly, how and for whom is water scarcity variously experienced in Egypt’s agricultural sector? Thirdly, how is scarcity deployed by different actors as a political tool? In answering these questions and drawing on in-depth fieldwork, I seek a nuanced look at an issue which has come to dominate discussions of water resources in the Middle East.