Cairo to Renovate All Its Informal Housing Units to Become ‘Slum-Free’ by the End of the Year

Khaled Abdel-Aal, Cairo’s Governor, announced plans to refurbish all of Cairo’s slums and informal housing units by the end of the year.

The development project has been allocated EGP 10 billion to renovate around 40,000 housing units, the governor announced. The units are going to be organized urban developments to relocate those living in the illegal unconstructed settlements.

Accordingly, this project also aims to provide job opportunities for the relocated residents.

Abdel-Aal stressed that the aim of the project is to provide “safe and adequate housing” for the residents of Cairo.  This project is inline with the government’s plan to face-lift the capital, Cairo.

Earlier this year, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi released a order for all redbrick buildings in the country to be furbished and painted according to a color scheme in an attempt to turn Egypt more visually appealing.

While there have been modern urban planing developments not just in the capital Cairo, but across Egypt, the country’s red brick buildings became a staple urban structure that the country has become known for.

Most of these buildings are informal settlements and at least 63 percent of Cairo’s population, around 11 million people, live in these settlements according to Rene Boer, a writer at Volume Project.

Recently, there have been several efforts to refurbish many of Egypt’s old buildings and developments, for instance Cairo’s Maspero triangle, to account for a more modern look to the country.

In return, those who live in these settlements are being compensated whether its through resettlement or monetary compensations.

The Egyptian Parliament has been taking measures to counter this problems in the urban planning sector in general.

To help maintain good quality infrastructure, the parliament requested an amendment to the No. 119 law in a meeting that was held on July 18, 2016.

The law imposes fines, an increase in utility fees, and prison sentence for those who breach the building regulations.