Reem Leila reports on Mrs Suzanne Mubarak's inauguration of the final phase of the Zeinhom Urban Development Scheme Last week Mrs Suzanne Mubarak inaugurated the third phase of the Zeinhom Urban Development Scheme (ZDUS), distributing ownership contracts to 20 of the 1,136 families who will benefit from this final stage of the project to upgrade the shantytown. Mrs Mubarak was accompanied by Cairo Governor Abdel-Azim Wazir, Minister of Housing Ahmed El-Maghrabi and Minister for Family and Population Mushira Khattab. People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour and the ministers of information, international cooperation, health, social solidarity, communications and information technology and irrigation and water resources were also in attendance. Zeinhom is the ninth shantytown to be developed in Cairo. The third phase of ZDUS included improving public services and infrastructure and was completed as a cooperative project between the Egyptian Red Crescent and Cairene businessmen. Mrs Mubarak also opened a family clinic and post office in the Zeinhom Garden area of Al-Sayeda Zeinab. The project covers 53 feddans in which 179 apartment buildings containing 2,432 residential units of 70 square metres have been built at a cost of LE200 million. "This will soon be referred to as the Zeinhom Garden neighbourhood rather than Zeinhom shantytown," Mrs Mubarak said before pledging to turn around other underdeveloped areas across the country. The first phase of the project began in 1998 when LE30 million was spent on developing 11 feddans and constructing 29 apartment blocks. The second phase of the project was initiated in January 2003 when LE65 million, the bulk of the money coming from civil society, was spent on building the necessary infrastructure on 20 feddans and constructing an additional 50 buildings. The Zeinhom development project brings together two leading non-governmental but highly influential bodies headed by Mrs Mubarak, the Egyptian Red Crescent Society and the Integrated Care Society. It is supported by concerned government bodies including the Local Development Ministry. In a short statement delivered at the inauguration Mrs Mubarak stressed that Zeinhom, like similar projects that aim to provide housing for the millions of Egyptian families who live on the outskirts of major cities, was central to efforts seeking to combat a host of social ailments, including discrimination against women. In the absence of decent shelter, Mrs Mubarak said, it is difficult to expect individuals to embrace social modernisation. "I thought of this project when I first visited the area 10 years ago. Then I wondered how a child could be raised properly in such an area. We determined to convert the area from a slum into a proper residential neighbourhood. The development was done over three phases, of which the last was the largest." The project serves as a reply of sorts to questions raised by many opposition groups over the ability of the regime to address the problems posed by the proliferation of shantytowns in Egypt. Government figures suggest there are close to 1,000 shantytowns across the country, clustered mostly around Cairo, Giza and Alexandria. The number of Egyptians living in them is estimated at between four to seven million. In Zeinhom, says Cairo's governor, buildings occupy just 22 per cent of the overall area with the remaining land being taken up by parks, gardens and roads. "The third phase includes a large commercial centre, a parking area of 1,950 square metres, a nursery, a fire station and a children's library. The police station has moved to the centre of the project while its old home has been converted into a children's garden," said Wazir. A youth centre is also being developed as well as a centre to combat illiteracy. Government officials have long acknowledged the problem of informal housing but stress that without the help of civil society the state cannot embark on the task of rebuilding such large neighbourhoods. Sociologists and criminologists have repeatedly warned that shantytowns pose a significant danger to society and they have been the subject of numerous debates in parliament.
