The Ministry of Housing and authorities in Aswan Governorate are seizing donations intended to help victims of last January’s floods, an architecture consultant with knowledge of the relief efforts said in a press release yesterday.
Mamdouh Hamza, whose architecture office contributed designs and input to the victims’ housing project, also said the government sent its architects to build homes for displaced locals, replacing the architects already on the job.
Hamza was surprised that police halted construction work, alleging he did not possess the required license, even though he paid the necessary fees last February. Architects finished 29 units and another 62 are in progress, according to Hamza’s statement.
Hamza added that police arrived at the construction site on Thursday, 25 March, drove the workers out, and deployed guards around the area, as they claimed that the site was being moved based on technical studies conducted by a panel of university professors and chaired by the assistant secretary general for Aswan Governorate.
Hamza said that he phoned Mahmoud Meghawri, head of the urbanization authority at the Ministry of Housing, assuring him that the site’s soil is adequate for building, but Meghawri turned to the governor and conducted another report.
"Although I had presented the governor with an authorization that makes me legally responsible for the safety measures over the next ten years, he convened with the contractors on 4 April and told them that ministry architects were to resume the work," Hamza said.
Hamza will hold a press conference Saturday where he says he will display documents from the project and offer proof of the government’s violations.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
