Thousands of people remain at risk as a result of faulty construction. Yasmine Fathy investigates On 26 January, Egyptians stared open mouthed at their screens as television cameras captured the madness around the rubble of what once was an imposing and towering building in the middle class neighbourhood of Madinet Nasr (Nasr City). As the emergency personnel desperately tried to save lives, officials were pictured hovering over the site. As usual in such high profile cases, officials made promises that insured all necessary steps would be taken to safeguard people from future collapses. Investigations into the infamous Madinet Nasr case resulted earlier this month in Attorney General Maher Abdel-Wahed committing building owners Abu Ray Shehata, Khalaf El-Sayed Mohamed and engineer Sayed Ali Hassan to the criminal court. The decision came after investigations revealed they had added six extra floors to the five storey building leading to the fateful collapse. However, seven months after the tragedy a cursory look at Madinet Nasr indicates little is being done to rectify a disastrous building situation. According to a recent report by the Egyptian Centre for Housing Rights, there are 112,000 demolition orders of which only 69 have been executed. Moreover, in an interview with the weekly newspaper Sawt Al-Umma on 1 February 2004, Mamdouh Lotfy, head of Cairo Planning, indicated that 95 per cent of buildings in Nasr City are violating one law or another. Abu Zeid Rageh, housing expert and ex-chairman of the Housing and Building Research Centre, argues that instead of a frenzy of demolitions and evacuations, the government should focus on updating its housing system. "The cracks are not just in our buildings, they are also in our weak housing system. These weaknesses are the real culprits behind the Nasr City collapse," he said. Rageh pointed out that the government's use of building violations as a political issue exemplifies the problem. During election time the government might announce that all previous violations will be exempted. "This is done to earn popularity," said Rageh. "It is very dangerous because people will continue living in buildings that are in violation and might collapse," he said. Likewise, punishing violators with a fine lets them off the hook too easily. "Punishing a tenant who builds five extra floors without a license with a million pound fine is just silly because each apartment he sells will probably go for a million pounds," said Rageh. In a recent interview with Al-Ahram Weekly Mohamed Mahmoud El-Moayed, head of the Nasr City district administration office, said the government has been taking preventive measures to avoid further collapses. "Since the crisis we have been focussing on two major issues, additional storeys constructed without a license and garages that have been turned illegally into restaurants and storehouses," explained El-Moayed. According to El-Moayed, tenants that built extra storeys without a license were asked to provide documents that prove their buildings can withstand the extra pressure. If the extra levels do not cause any structural harm to the building only a fine is paid. "Better let them pay a fine than throw the residents out on the street," El-Moayed said. Secondly, garages that were turned into stores or restaurants will be evacuated. "Sometimes garages are used to store toxic materials. Also, restaurants often use butane canisters which are very dangerous, so we ask them to switch to natural gas," he said. El-Moayed also said that since February 2004, 712 demolition orders were issued, of which 122 were executed. El- Moayed cited greed as the main reason for violations. "People want to use the construction site as much as they can. So they build as many floors as possible and turn their garages into stores and restaurants," he said. But, asks Rageh, where was the district when construction was taking place. "I mean the government says the tenants are violating housing laws? Were these building being constructed underground? Where were you when they were being built to make sure there were no violations," he said. He pointed out that Egypt does not have effective engineering, administrative and legal systems, important ingredients for a stable housing system. "We lack the mechanisms to supervise the construction of a building," he said. Corruption plays a major role. Cheating on construction materials is frequent in Egypt. According to Zeinat El-Askary, head of the Legal Unit at the Egyptian Centre for Housing Rights, a contractor might cheat on building materials in order to make a profit. This state of affairs is due to the lack of a code defining the components to be used in every building. Such code books of building practices tend to be issued by national governments to regulate the building trade. "But can you believe that until 10 years ago Egypt did not have such a code book? And even now many people in the business are unaware of it," says Rageh. Tedious bureaucratic building laws and complicated paperwork also come into play. Acquiring a license is a major problem that many building owners have to face. In order to erect a building a tenant has to abide by the Aviation Law, the Zoning Law and the Demolitions Law to name a few. "There is a law that regulates the specifications of housing in any given area. For example, there are articles that specify height. Others that indicate a building's height should not exceed one and one quarter, or one and a half the width of the street," El-Askary said. And while these laws may look good, some argue that it is the abundance of housing laws in Egypt that creates confusion. "All these laws require a specialist. They are impossible for a normal citizen to understand, and building owners often make mistakes," says El-Askary. And then there are constant modifications to the laws. "A new modification of the law required that each building must have an area specialised as a garage. But what about buildings constructed before that modification? Why should these owners be punished," she asked. According to Rageh, constant modifications result in a loss of respect for the law. In Mohandessin, for example, the law stated that buildings could only take up 40 per cent of the construction site, and not exceed three floors. Over time the 40 per cent was raised to 60 per cent, then 80 per cent, then 100 per cent, with the height increasing from three floors to 10. "So of course the laws loose any respectability," said Rageh. "A tenant would say to himself: "The limit is three floors? Well I'll build six, they'll probably change it later anyway." The lack of respect for the law also stems from the painfully slow pace at which authorities arrive at a final decision. According to El-Askary, even if a demolition order is issued the owner can take the case back to court, "where it can stay for a decade," she said. Moreover, at times the court decisions are just too ridiculous to implement. "We have cases where the court decides that the fourth and fifth floors of a 10 storey building are in violation and should be removed, while the rest is OK," said Rageh. "This is just hilarious. We will not be safe in our homes until the laws are respected; and the laws will not be respected until we fill the gaps in our fragile housing system. It's like a broken chain."
