Despite government assurances that rickety buildings rank high on the agenda, the collapse of two houses proves otherwise, writes Jailan Halawi In the early hours of Monday, in separate incidents, eight people were killed and six were injured when two buildings collapsed in Hadayeq Al-Qobba east of Cairo, and in Qalyoub, in the Qalyoubia governorate north of the capital. The four-storey residential building in Hadayeq Al-Qobba had a higher casualty toll, five dead, all but one from the same family. Three others were wounded. Seventeen were unhurt. Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Moneim Emad was visiting his sister's family on Monday but left shortly before the collapse. Emad had been visiting his 55- year-old sister Nadia, her son, 34-year-old Ayman Farouk, wife Seham and two grandchildren, nine- year-old Youssef and Yasmine, four. Ten minutes after Emad left, the house disappeared under a pile of rubble and a cloud of smoke. Seham, who was in the balcony minutes before the fall, was the sole survivor of Emad's family. She is currently in hospital suffering from trauma. Amal Mahmoud and her mother Zakeya Ibrahim could not escape after the building's staircase crumbled beneath them. They were also taken to hospital. Not all the victims were residents of the building. Blocks of concrete knocked Mohamed Sultan down while he was walking down the street. The tumbling of old apartment buildings in Egypt has become common place over the past decade, as has the questions about the building's codes and maintenance regulations which inevitably follow. As in previous incidents, the reasons behind Monday's collapse remains ambiguous. The truth usually is lost among contradictory statements by officials and conflicting accounts of witnesses. According to official reports, the residents had submitted two complaints to the Cairo governor's office requesting a warrant for the 60-year-old building's maintenance, which was issued in 1989, but never executed by the landlord who is currently being interrogated by the prosecution. Reportedly, the landlord, Mohamed Osman El-Manakhili, said he knew nothing about any maintenance warrants since he bought the building in 1988. El-Manakhili lives with his four children in the ill-fated building. Had he known of any danger, El-Manakhili said he would not have stayed in the house, putting his life and that of his family in danger. He denied having knowledge of any complaints by any of the residents. Still, El-Manakhili was ordered by the prosecution to be remanded in custody pending a further investigation. The prosecution ordered the setting up of a technical committee from the district council to examine the building and the reasons behind its collapse. Another committee from forensics is to examine the corpses. On site, the Cairo governor made the usual appearance, promising immediate compensation for the families of the victims while transferring them to alternative homes in the state-owned Al-Nahda complex. He also delegated to the Arab Contractors Company for Buildings and Construction the job of conducting safety checks in adjacent buildings to see whether they should be evacuated. Witnesses described the accident as "an act of negligence and laxity" on the part of the district's council which failed to follow up on a warrant it issued 17 years ago. Monday's collapse was not the first of its kind and, going by history, will probably not be the last. The same day witnessed the collapse of another residential building in Port Said that remained inhabited despite a demolition warrant issued three years ago. Fortunately, there was no loss of life reported in Port Said, however, two female residents were injured when the ceiling of their apartment caved in. That gave the women enough time to flee before the total collapse. The threat of old buildings becoming potential tombs for their residents manifested itself in the 17 August collapse of an old structure in the densely populated district of Shubra six hours after its residents evacuated the building. Unlike other incidents, the culprit was not negligence but indifference. According to the building's residents, the problem started eight months ago when digging began nearby for the construction of what looked to be a huge complex, resulting in cracks in the walls of their own houses. The many complaints by the residents to the district's police station, and their numerous petitions to the Cairo governor's office and that of the housing minister, resulted in a warrant to halt construction. But after a brief pause, construction was restarted. Residents are now being forced to guard their belongings in shifts in the absence of any security personnel. Also needed is a permit, without which they cannot collect their personal belongings. Other residents are spending their days filing complaints to various official bodies, whether police stations, the governor's office or the district council. In the words of one resident, "it seems that the poor will continue to be the victims of an indifferent system that has become deaf and blind to the many tragedies of its people."
