The healthy drainage project opened by president Mubarak yesterday in Minya has not yet been finished, according to citizens and members of municipal councils. Officials were accused of failing to pay enough attention to areas located just a few meters from those visited by the president. Photos obtained by Al-Masry Al-Youm revealed that throughout the whole region of Mallawy, with the exception of the areas scheduled for the visit or devoted for officials convoys, rubbish and used sewage pipes, as well as remnants of construction work on the sewage network, can be found strewn around. Rafat Mikhael, member of Mallawy's local council, stated that the drainage project has not yet been finished. He noted that the work that has actually been carried out was on the subsidiary sewage stations that serve only the West Mallawy district, while connections serving the rest of the region have not been completed until now. Mikhael said that there are even neighborhoods where work has not yet started. He added that members of the local council were not invited to Mubarak's reception, contrary to usual protocol, and that only senior Muslim religious figures, alongside Anba Demetrious, archbishop of Mallawy, were invited to attend. This claim was supported by Mohamed Abdel Alim, undersecretary of Mallawy's local council, who said, "We used to receive invitations to attend receptions for the president, even when his visit was to other areas of the governorate, but this time we were bypassed, though he is visiting our own region." Abdel Alim added that if the route of the president's visit had deviated just a few meters from the line scheduled, he would have seen garbage and dirty ponds of water everywhere, despite the fact that Mallawy is the governorate's only region which includes a garbage recycling plant. Mubarak arrived in Luxor yesterday afternoon on his third visit to the province since the start of the comprehensive development project. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
