The Cairo Governorate has started removing ‘Ezbet Abu Qarn‘, the largest shanty area within the Old Cairo neighborhood, in implementation of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s directives to remove all slums.
Engineer Gehan Abdel-Moneim, Deputy Governor of Cairo for the Southern Region, said that the removal work on Monday resulted in the complete demolition of three commercial properties in the shanty area, and the partial removal of six properties.
In total 16 out of a total of 22 properties owned by citizens – with a total of 140 families – have been removed, she added.
The residents will be relocated to more safer areas, which Abdel-Moneim assured will grant them a higher quality of life and services they could hardly access before.
This move proves that the state is eager to provide a better life to all citizens living in slums and other insecure areas, Abdel-Moneim added.
Slums no more
Cairo Governor Khaled Abdel-Aal announced back in 2019 that the governorate has devised a plan to focus on development for dangerous and unsafe settlements, freeing the capital from slums by the end of 2019.
He explained that through the Development of Slums Unit, the government prepared an inventory of all slums in Cairo, a step that comes in line with the government’s policy on this matter.
Abdel-Aal said that the government has set about 40,000 housing units and financial amounts estimated at about LE10 billion to accomplish this task.
He added that the governorate will build the housing units needed to create new integrated urban communities and provide job opportunities for people transferred to it.
