Policy Briefs

EGYPT'S SLUMS:

Government's policies towards slums . challenges

and solutions
The slums are not a place of despair. Its inhabitants are all
working towards a better life. Vikus Swarup, an Indian novelist
(Swarup, n.d.).
Introduction:
Slums are a challenge to the housing sector in the whole world especially
the developing countries which lacks the well planned urbanizing process,
According to the UN-HABITAT, Each day a further 120,000 people are
added to the populations of Asian cities, requiring the construction of at
least 20,000 new dwellings and supporting infrastructure. In Latin America
and the Caribbean current housing needs are estimated at between 42
million and 52 million dwellings, respectively. Estimates concerning total
housing needs in Africa have been set at around 4 million units per year
with over 60 per cent of the demand required to accommodate urban
residents.

Fig. 1. Location of the 30 biggest mega-slums in the World (In the figure, the circles size and color indicate
the number of inhabitants in millions, while the letter (code on map)
indicate the name of the city. (Davis, 2006: 30).

Egypt's slums ..policy challenges.

Since the catastrophic Duwaiqa rockslide in 2008, multiple governments
have taken a random set of actions towards informal areas in Cairo,
varying from marking some of those areas as Unsafe, to evicting people
from it. In the pre-revolution era, the situation of slums was often saved
from eruption from government from time to time, even though that
treatment was subpar. After the revolution, the situation have gotten worse
due to the ongoing government shuffling. The government have argued by
actions that upgrading the slums is not ideal for the country, and chose to
evict the informalities and demolish it. However, many human rights and
urban solidarity organizations oppose that argument, stating that its a
harmful action to both human rights and urban civilization. As evictions
mostly never end happily for evicted families, especially with the illtreatment from the authorities, upgrading the slums is most effective when
it comes to social equality, national security and urban civilization.

The uncontrolled informalities problem have always been perceived by the

authorities as a Social ticking bomb, despite such statement, authorities
chose in multiple events to evict the area altogether, claiming that the
government has insufficient costs to upgrade the area. However, the
consequences of eviction is way beyond the costs. People get thrown at
the street, children become homeless, losing their feel of safety at such a
young age, and they may have to work legally or illegally to help with the
life costs and restore their previous life state, making their life system
dangerous and chaotic, which is harmful for the country. In 2011, people
got evicted from their apartments at Salam City and Maspero, according to
families, many children died, lost and ran away with hope of a better life,
and who knows where they are now.
The government has been forcibly evicting slums around Cairo, claiming
that this provides a better, more secure life for residents. However, in
every forceful eviction, the hatred between people and security forces, and
government too, grows more. And a youth hoping for a better life, gets
shattered, striped down from ethics, due to this act of injustice, leading to a
person who believes in taking rights by force from others, just like what
happened to him.

Government argues that building new settlement for slum dwellers at

outskirts of Cairo, would create opportunities for new cities to emerge, and
would improve current cities urban status. However, most of these
settlement projects never finish up due to insufficient costs, and those who
lived in slums are economically and socially attached to where they settled
their lives at. Upgrading their settlement would create a more stable life for
the families, and a better vision of future for their kids. In 1988, the idea of
upgrading the informal settlements of Telal Zeinhoum came to life, and
after 22 years, Telal Zeinhoum became the ultimate slum dweller dream,
there is even an advertising slogan for it: Living at the heart of Cairo.. for
real, and some refer to it as Zeinhoum Heights, as if it was an exclusive
residential settlement.

Upgrading slums the long run solution.

The main reason for slum upgrading is that people have a fundamental
right to live with basic dignity and in decent conditions.
On another level, it is in a citys best interest to upgrade slums and prevent
the formation of new slums. If slums are allowed to deteriorate,
governments can lose control of the populace and slums become areas of
crime and disease that impact the whole city.
Slum upgrading benefits a city by Fostering inclusion as, Slum upgrading
addresses serious problems affecting slum residents, including illegality,
exclusion, precariousness and barriers to services, credit, land, and social
protection for vulnerable populations such as women and children.
In addition, in-situ slum upgrading is:
- Affordable. Slum upgrading costs less and is more effective than
relocation to public housing. Developing land with basic services
costs even less.
- Flexible. It can be done incrementally by the city and by the residents
at a pace that is technically and financially possible for both.
- Viable. The poor can and are willing to pay for improved services and
homes.

According to the above, Upgrading the slums is the most effective act for
Egypt, with the mediocre budget that the country has. Families get to keep
their homes, businesses alive, with a chance of a future upgrade for their
life. Enrolling the slums into the urban civilization is much more worthwhile
than excluding them from their homeland. With children becoming
homeless, government failing at achieving the promises made and not
having sufficient budget to create new, well-structured cities, eviction is the
least rightful action for slums in Egypt. Government must stick to upgrading
the slums, and start working with a real, strong plan, or the ticking social
bomb will keep ticking, till it explode really hard, really bad.

REFERENCE PAGE:
1. Sharp, A. (2008, Sep 27) Cairo's poorest live life on the edge.
Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/
2. Madinet El-Salam protesters threaten to resume Maspero sit-in
(2011, Aug 21) Retrieved from http:// www.dailynewsegypt.com/
3. Zinhum Housing Development The Dream of Slum Dwellers.
(2014) Retrieved from http://www.tadamun.info/
4. About Slum Upgrading, Retrieved from :http://www.citiesalliance.org.
5. Housing & slum upgrading, UN-HABITAT, Retrieved from:
http://unhabitat.org/urban-themes/housing-slum-upgrading.
6. Davis, M. (2006). Planet of slums. New York: Verso.