Experts in planning have warned that Egypt may face a health and environmental disaster due to the high population density. They also said the population density and the deteriorating educational system are behind the high social and moral crime rates. Dr. Aboul Fottouh Saad, Professor of Urban Planning at Cairo University, said: "The dramatically high population density in some districts of Greater Cairo is primarily due to the decentralization of the political, economic and social decision-making process, and to poor urban planning." He added: "Greater Cairo attracts people from all over the country because business is concentrated there; a result of the central decision-making process that distributes wealth in certain areas. That is why people keep coming to this place." He continued: "People in Cairo constitute 60% of its building capacity. The population density has increased more than the absorptive capacity of the city. Also, the public and private services and facilities failed to meet the needs of such vast population. This is why we see people deprived of water or overcrowded in public transportation. Also, the per capita green areas and open spaces have declined sharply, turning the neighborhoods of Greater Cairo into centers spreading epidemics."
He added: "As the government cannot force the people to leave the places they have settled in for years, it must open new lines for development and re-distribute wealth and investment opportunities so that the density rate in Greater Cairo could be reduced."
On the satellite cities reducing the population density in Greater Cairo, Dr. Saad said: "The new urban projects have been mandated from above. They were decided arbitrarily by the political leadership without consulting with the public, for which those projects were designed in the first place. They have turned into profit-making projects that do not take into account any economic or social dimensions. They are more of a financial security for the children of the rich."
Dr. Saad continued: "We need a political breakthrough that allows for more freedom, democracy and decentralization in dealing with the views and studies that seek to reduce the population density. Urban planning is a mirror that reflects society." Dr. Mohamed Abdel Baki Ibrahim, the head of the Urban Planning Center, said Greater Cairo alone accounts for 40% of the total government investment in facilities and services due to the poor management of urban development. This has increased the population density and exhausted those facilities and services." Blaming the local councils, Baki said: "They are haphazard and bureaucratic. Their heads are not chosen for merit. They are corrupt. And they issue licenses for shantytowns." He added: "The high population density and the deteriorating education system are behind the high social and moral crime rates."
