One of the CSDV’s explicit goals is to eliminate urban sprawl around the Pyramids, clearing out over 50,000 residents in Nazlit Al-Simmān. Little to no information has been made public on the government’s eviction, compensation, and relocation plans.The livelihoods of most residents will surely suffer since the majority of Nazlit Al-Simmān’s economic activity is dependent on tourism related to the Pyramids. According to Dr. Ahmed Yousry, the lead designer of the CSDV plan, evicted residents are to be compensated or relocated to new housing units on several vacant pieces of land owned by the state or land managed by the Egyptian Awqāf (Religious Endowments) Authority. The exact location of these lands was not discussed, however Dr. Yousry’s presentation included a map that highlighted several potential relocation areas east of the Ring Road (approximately four kilometers east of Nazlit Al-Simmān), an area near the Ring Road and Mariutiyya Road intersection (approximately three kilometers southeast of Nazlit Al-Simmān), and an area seven kilometers west of Al-Simmān.Final agreements have not been reached to allocate the above mentioned land plots for alternative housing. It is worth noting that these types of agreements are often problematic and complicated,bureaucratic and inter-agency skirmishes delay pending projects. However,unlike previous discussion sessions focused on other projects, local residents were not present.EDG had only invited Nazlit Al-Simmān’s influential families, not representatives of the average resident. According to EDG, the prominent families decided to boycott the meeting after hearing “rumors” that the entire area was to be demolished, despite EDG’s clarification of the meeting’s purpose.The influential families were presumably also annoyed by the odd location chosen to hold the session – in downtown Cairo, over 20 kms away from Nazlet Al-Simmān.And even if some community members had attended the session, thousands of other affected residents would still be in the dark about the project, since there is no channel for them to access this highly-secured, if not secret, information. Previous discussion sessions conducted for other areas had their shortcomings which were discussed in an earlier TADAMUN article, but at least the authorities presented the socio-economic impact studies in the earlier meetings to the attending community members and proposed solutions to mitigate their negative impact. The Al-Simmān session didn’t even provide that information in sufficient detail. It was particularly surprising that the meeting wasn’t centered on the socio-economic impact and mitigation measures since, according to EDG, a preliminary survey of the area was conducted to better understand its socio-economic dynamics. During the session TADAMUN suggested sharing the contents of this report with the attendees to form an enhanced and realistic understanding of social life in the area. However, the study is unlikely to be circulated outside of government circles due to confidentiality agreements with the GOPP.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 14:48:38 +0000
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