President Abdel Fattah El Sisi arrived on Thursday 15/12/2016 at the venue of a celebration marking the inauguration of Rod el Farag-Dhabaa axis. National road network projects - carried out by several ministries - will also be inaugurated today. The president was welcomed by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Defense Minister Sedqy Sobhy, National Projects Presidential Adviser Ibrahim Mahlab and a number of top state officials. The celebration started with reciting some verses of Qur'an. Then, a footage was screened about terror and innocent martyrs. A cluster of religious scholars, including ex-state mufti Ali Gomaa, Habib Ali Gaafari and Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark Diocese, spoke on the footage about terrorism. Housing Minister Moustafa Madboly reviewed the ministry's achievements over the past 30 months as well as a number of projects that were finalized in the fields of housing and drinking water. By the end of the year, about 225,000 housing units would be finalized, within the framework of the social housing project launched in 2014, he said. About 0.5 million housing units would be finalized by mid-2017, he added. The minister cited some of the challenges facing the housing sector, including price changes after the recent economic decisions. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said the state tried to intervene to alleviate people's burdens, noting that price rise had led to upping allocations for state-subsidized housing units. Housing Minister Moustafa Madboly said the social housing project secured about 6,000 units for rent, noting that this would serve people whose monthly income is less than 1500 EGP. The ministry will offer an additional 20,000 units for rent, he said. He noted that 8,134 units were set up in Damietta and Shata at a total cost of 1.1 billion EGP. He added that 1,104 housing units were set up in Suez. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi interrupted Housing Minister Moustafa Madboly calling for ditching about 900 homes that were affected by torrential rains in the Red Sea governorate, especially as people were moved to new houses. The minister said work has already started in this respect. Concerning the development of unsafe areas, Madboly noted that a large number of shanty areas in Hurghada, Alexandria, Sohag, Menya and Port Said would be upgraded in the coming three months. Also, several higgledy-piggledy markets in Port Said and Cairo would also be upgraded or moved to civilized areas. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi underlined the importance of getting rid of the slum areas problem, noting that 170,000 new units would be ready by mid-2018 for people living in unsafe areas. The president stressed all problems and crises can be settled, but this just requires more resolve and work. The president added that "security efforts alone are not enough for confronting terror, but improving people's life is a prerequisite." Housing Minister Moustafa Madboly said the main problem is that sanitation services in villages over the past 25 years until 2014, were extended to only 10 percent of all Egyptian villages. He noted that the ministry managed to up this percentage to 15 over the past two years, adding that about EGP 160 billion is needed to finalize sanitation projects in the rest of villages. He noted that the ministry's plan aims at extending sanitation services to 42 percent of villages by the end of 2018. He added that about EGP 8 billion is needed for developing outdated water and sanitation grids. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi interrupted Housing Minister Moustafa Madboly to expound that establishing drinking water and sanitation projects is costly. The president added that such projects need maintenance which also needs a lot of money. The president expounded that it was impossible to proceed with the economic system and new economic measures were needed to avoid shrinking state budget, especially by debts. Over the past two years, Housing Minister Moustafa Madboly said, the ministry finished up 424 drinking and drainage projects at a capacity of 5.7 billion cubic meters and a cost of 28.7 billion pounds. These projects aimed at facing a sharp shortage in drinking water that was reported in 2014 due to the spread of slums. Out of the 424, 136 drinking water and 288 drainage projects were finalized, including 227 ones in rural areas against 480 that were carried out over the past 25 years.
These projects are either operational or about to join the service, he said, adding that they were implemented in villages and townships that were deprived of water and drainage services, citing Wafaeya station in Beheira and Qasaseen station in Ismailia. He said the 100-million-pound Qasaseen plant serves 150,000 residents of the city. Housing Minister Moustafa Madboly said there are 800 other projects that are now being carried out at investments of 60 billion pounds, some of them are to be finalized on June 30, including 73 drinking water and 38 drainage projects. The minister also spoke about the important axes carried out by the ministry over the past period, including the 196km-long Beni Mazar al Bawaity that cost 875 million pounds. The project is of importance as it connects between Beni Mazar in Minya and Wahat area in Bawaity city. He also spoke about the 2.2-billion-pound Al Sa'aa Bridge project in Alexandria governorate, saying the 470-meter-long and 17-meter-wide bridge was implemented to address traffic congestion at Sa'aa square. Housing Minister Moustafa Madboly talked about the new four cities that will be set up in Upper Egypt, exactly in west of Beni Suef, Minya, Assiut and Qena. They will be integrated cities comprising industrial zones, logistics areas, universities and sports and medical centers, he said. The new cities are located in distinguished places close to the cities of Beni Suef, Minya, Wena and Assiut, he added. After finishing his word, President Sisi said the new cities will be designed in a way that level up to Egyptians, calling for setting up bridges linking between east and west of River Nile so that residents could move easily between new and old cities. He urged authorities concerned to offer licensed pieces of land in the new cities to citizens and to make sure that owners stick to agreed-upon forms to avoid any violations.
