The Community Development Committee of the Federation of Egyptian Banks is launching a project to remove the wastes of 15 informal areas in Helwan, which will take place as of next Saturday, January 17th. This comes following a meeting held by the Community Development Committee's representatives in cooperation with experts from f Ministry of Urban Development and Informal Settlements, Cairo Governorate, Helwan District, Helwan University, Cleansing and Beautification Authorities (CCBA), Nahdet Misr, and Egyptian civil society organizations. The project is pursuant to an agreement on cooperation signed on February 6th, 2014 between the Military Works Division of the Armed Forces' Engineering Authority, Cairo Governorate, the Ministry of State for Local Development, and the Federation of Egyptian Banks. The agreement is designated to develop a number of major informal areas in Helwan and east Nasr City districts. It is within the framework of the FEB's keenness and interest to activate and sustain the slum development system. In this respect, FEB has allocated EGP 150 million amid the participation of the banks in Egypt for upgrading the infrastructure of the informal areas mentioned in the agreement. In the same vein, FEB's Community Development Committee had held an intensive meeting last Tuesday in the presence of all the parties involved in the initiative of developing informal areas in Helwan. During the meeting, all the parties had held a constructive dialogue, which was prepared by Maha El-Bashir – Head of Solid Waste Sector of the Egyptian Ministry of Urban Development. From his part, Ahmed Abdullah – Cairo governor's aide – emphasised that the governorate would remove all the obstacles in the way of bringing the project into effect. He also referred to the importance of devising methods to benefit from the solid waste.
