IN Hadaaiq Helwan, south of Cairo, Somaya el-Sayyed, a housewife, looks despairingly at all the garbage in her street, including a number of old, abandoned cars that have become a home for rodents and insects. People often dump their old cars in the street, in rich and poor areas alike. Apart from the rodents and insects, thugs and street children often use these forsaken vehicles as dens for taking drugs. A lot of cars get dumped in a certain area of el-Sayyeda Zeinab, despite the fact that the Ministry of Interior is located just round the corner. Ibrahim el-Sayyed, a street vendor in the Islamic Cairo quarter of el-Sayyed Zeinab, says that street children don't just take drugs in these cars. In Doqqi, a smart district of Giza where many rich people live and a lot of embassies, banks and governmental institutions are found, there is a similar problem. “People dump their trash next to these old cars. At least they serve as a useful landmark for strangers," Saadia Hamed, who sells vegetable on the pavement, comments wryly. Such scrapped cars are a security threat. A guard outside an embassy in Zamalek says he doesn't realise the old taxi left to rot outside the embassy is a potential danger. Near the Ministry of Agriculture in Doqqi, a large number of old vehicles languish, full of rubbish and covered with dust. "It's a disaster. I have to work past these cars on my way home every night. There could be a kid with a knife or a junkie high on drugs lurking behind them, waiting to pounce on me,” says Mahmoud Abdel-Latif, a civil servant. Of course, it's far more dangerous for women and children. In Faisal Street near el-Haram in Giza, the old cars cause major traffic jams, explains Mohamed Tareq, head of Faisal and el-Haram district. But there's light at the end of the tunnel, as he says that the Giza Governor and the head of the Traffic Police recently held a meeting to discuss how to deal with the problem. The result of that LE50 million is going to be spent in both Cairo and Giza governorates to get these old cars taken to the public rubbish dump in Shabramant, Giza. Eight cranes will be made available to remove the old cars. The deputy head of Doqqi district, Mohamed Mamdouh, says that they will be getting tough on the owners of these scrapped cars, if they can be traced. “Obviously, it helps trace them if the number plates are left on the car. In this case, the cars will be taken to a warehouse at Kilo 10 on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road and, when the owner is traced, he'll have to pay a fine.”
