CAIRO - On the outskirts of Cairo, there are more than 81 randomly built residential areas, where more than three million people have been living without any basic utilities and infrastructure since the 1980s. In these areas, which are popularly known as the ashwa'yaat or shantytowns, crime rates are high because they are densely populated with a strange mixture of people, who are either immigrants from the countryside, poor people and ex-convicts, or fugitives. These areas are known to have narrow and interwound allies. On both sides of each ally stand a coarsely built one or two-storey tiny house that has no running water, sewage system or electricity. Each house, which is built of shale bricks or wood, has a low-roofed one or two-room apartment, where all the members of a big family are cramped. Each morning witnesses a fight or a fracas between the dwellers over running water, which comes from a street tap, or the joint bathroom, if they existed. The shantytowns of Cairo, which are not under police control, constitute a suitable environment for all types of illegal activities to flourish and grow. The existing poverty and negligence that envelope el-Assarah, Batn el-Baqara and Estable Antaar shantytowns and their destitute dwellers compel everyone to do anything to feed his or her children. In these areas on the outskirts of Old Cairo, pot smoking dens are to be found; dinky coffee shops show blue lamp movies to the idle youth; fences sell swags and the harassment of women is a daily event. Unless a fast and realistic social and security solutions are found for these areas, they will become cancerous cells that threaten the whole Egyptian society, a recent study, prepared by the Cairo-based National Centre for Social and Criminological Studies, has warned. There are political reasons that led to the spread of randomly built areas on the outskirts of cities nationwide, the study, prepared by Mohamed el-Sarag, a city planning professor at Al-Azhar University, explained. The consecutive Governments have always cared about upgrading cities and towns only and forgotten all about developing the countryside, the study said. Because the rural areas received little attention from the post-January revolution Government, farmers are tempted to migrate from their villages to the cities, which had all the facilities that would make their lives better than the original places, the study said. In shantytowns divorce and polygamy rates are high and education is low. In addition, birth rates are very high, thanks to low education rates and the new immigrants believe that the more children they have, the more powerful they become in the new urban environment, the study said. An average family in a shantytown consists of six children who are raised according to street ethics and bad morals and habits. These children never receive regular education and learn their culture from the bizarre mixture of poor children they play with in the alleys and learn their violent culture from their peers, the study warned. When these children go out of the shantytown and visit the city, which does not usually welcome them, they bring their violence and hatred against society with them. El-Zawya el-Hamra shantytown was the nucleus of sectarian strife that hit Egypt during the early 1980's. Sadat's assassins were arrested hiding inside El-Zawya el-Hamra. The study suggested that a swift comprehensive solution is needed to either help upgrade these shantytowns and provide their inhabitants with infrastructure and utilities that would help them live a more dignified life and try to integrate them with society. The sooner this plan is implemented, the better for all society. Residents of the densely populated shantytowns, who live in unsuitable homes, feel alienated from society because they are ignored by the Government, a joint study showed yesterday. The study, which has deemed many of these homes unsuitable, has called on the Government to improve the living conditions of the shantytown residents. In many houses, an entire family may occupy no more than a single room, the study said, adding that the living conditions in these shantytowns are not good. The shantytowns, where the density is too high, lack water mains and sewers, paved roads and schools, it said. "The residents are deprived of basic infrastructure such as sewerage and rely on an antiquated waste disposal system," the study said, adding that the gap between the people living in the slums and the chic neighbouring areas is big. Because the young residents of these slums feel that the Government will not find solutions to their day-to-day problems, or alleviate their suffering, the future is bleak for them, it said. "Since they feel that the Government will not provide them with jobs, improved housing units and health and education services, they feel isolated from their own society and refrain from social or political participation," the study said.
