CAIRO: An Egyptian expert has criticized the current situation of the population in Egypt, saying that despite the large allocations adopted by the government for slums, there has been no change and the explanation to this is that the population distribution in Egypt is not balanced and is one of the three main dimensions of the problem of population Egypt. In addition to rapid growth and the low level of population characteristics, Abdul-Muttalib Abdul-Hamid said there is a significant increase of the phenomenon of slums across the country, where the number amounted to 870 total in 2007 and slums absorbed 39 percent of the total urban population of Egypt. The Ministry of Economic Development has allocated some 600 million Egyptian pounds for the development of slums, including 500 million pounds from the state budget and 100 million pounds as local grants. Othman Mohamed Othman, Minister of Economic Development, noted that the program to develop the slums is of a “great importance, especially in light of the growing slums, and its serious and negative repercussions on society, both economically, socially and physically.” The minister said that the ministry will focus on the development of unsafe slums and that “priority be given to areas with low construction density on three themes and attention to areas of life-threatening health conditions and the harmonization of housing and the regularization of tenure.” For his part, Abdul-Hamid, Dean at the Sadat Academy for Economic Research, said the situation is “not expected to change the distribution of the population during the quarter of the next century, meaning it is not expected that new governorates would attract people and Cairo would remain densely populated, where people come from all over Egypt.” Abdul Hamid added that, according to data from the last census in 2006, “population density is about 73 people per square meter, and increasing in density in major cities in an unprecedented way, making these cities reeling from deepening social and economic problems, as well as the failure of the basic infrastructure to meet the basic needs of the population in these cities.” He pointed to the existence of more than 7 million people living in slums in Cairo and Giza only, and that this number is growing by 3 percent annually. “Adding to them is 200,000 people per year and Greater Cairo alone has about 76 slum areas on an area of 230,000 square kilometers,” he said. BM
