Deteriorating sanitary conditions, including sewage leaks and uncollected garbage, are threatening the Ezbet al-Nasr neighborhood in Cairo's Basateen district with environmental crisis, say local residents. They say that repeated complaints filed with government officials about overflowing waste water and steadily rising piles of refuse have gone unanswered. “We used to depend on septic tanks that we had installed ourselves," said one resident. "The governorate promised to complete a new waste water project last year, but the project still remains under construction." According to locals, the state-run waste water company mandated with carrying out the project has already committed several mistakes. “They broke the septic tanks, which has caused waste water to run into the streets,” complained one denizen of Ezbet al-Nasr. Resident Nageyah Hosni, for her part, said that rising waste water had recently caused the ground floor of her building to collapse, obliging her to repair it at her own expense. Electrician Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed tells a similar story, recalling how his basement was recently flooded with sewage, destroying valuable equipment. MP for Basateen and Dar al-Salam Ahmed Kamal Tayei said that the Rolan Company, which is overseeing the waste water project, had outsourced the project to five other contracting companies that had failed to adequately coordinate with one another. “The company erred when it began drilling in alleys and side streets, where water depth is only about 2.5 meters, to install sewage pipes,” said Tayei. “It should have begun on the main streets--where water depth is anywhere from between six and eight meters--to avoid causing sewage overflows.” According to Basateen municipal chief Adel Abbas, the Housing Ministry has allocated LE18 million to the Ezbet al-Nasr sewage project. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
