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Al-Ahram Weekly 7 - 13 October 1999 Issue No. 450 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 7 - 13 October 1999 Issue No. 450
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Clear as water
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Interview Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Sir- I read with great interest the article "Stream of Consciousness" by Fatemah Farag and her interview with the minister of public works (Al-Ahram Weekly, 16-22 September). I enjoyed the clarity of her writing and the balanced presentation of the rosy and the painful facets of the water management issue.
Both the article and the interview present a clear picture of a potentially difficult problem with Egypt's water resources. The presentation was very lucid and the interview was factual, informative and very illuminating. The effort of Egypt's water distribution planners has to be commended.
However, it is clear that coordination problems do exist between different ministries resulting in human suffering and near disaster conditions, as shown by the plight of the people of Zagalona.
Managing water resources is a world-wide problem. It will be very beneficial to readers if Fatemah Farag completes the series on managing Egypt's water resources by exploring drainage, increase in soil salinity and coast erosion facets of water resource management.
Omar S Khalil
Libertyville, IL
US
Cairo 2020
Sir-The government's Herculean efforts to bring an end to Cairo's traffic nightmare should indeed be commended, if only for their quality of perseverance. They do, however, bring to mind another Herculean effort: cleaning up the Augean Stables. The more bridges, flyovers and bridge extensions built, the more futile the whole exercisee.
The new satellite cities seemed to promise a radical solution to our megalopolis' impending strangulation by creating new, economically viable and environment-friendly communities. Created by decree in the midst of empty desert, these new cities could have been an urban planner's dream come true. No need here to blindly grope underground in a desperate attempt to renovate a decrepit and decayed infrastructure. No need to bulldoze houses and throw whole communities out on the street in order to clear the way for bigger and better roads or flyovers. Indeed, one would think that once a decision is made to "create" a new city in the midst of the desert all that is needed is a drawing board and good people, urban planners with a minimum of vision, to draw on it. The new cities that we did get, however, have all the makings of new urban catastrophes. Our new private sector industrialists are creating Helwan-like nightmares in the desert; unplanned, so-called haphazard housing is springing up around them; the infrastructure is deficient; and to top it all, these cities lack the minimum requirements to make them self-contained, viable communities. So rather than bring some relief to Cairo's congestion, they have become new extensions of the capital .
As for the exclusive "dream" estates that are being built for the super rich, both in the new satellite cities and along the roads leading to them; these clearly offer no relief at all for the beleaguered capital. Not only because we're speaking about a tiny fraction of Cairo's residents, but also because we can be certain that these people will be commuting daily between Cairo, in which most of them will most likely keep other residences, and their new exclusive suburbs.
With all the millennial talk these days, and with a new government under formation, will officials start thinking of what Cairo will look like, not a 100 from now, but merely in the next one or two decades, and try to devise solutions accordingly.
Sherif Abdel-Hamid
Mohandessin
Giza
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