- Title: EGYPT: Cairo shanty town swellers fear another fatal landslide
- Date: 15th September 2008
- Summary: WOMAN AND CHILDREN GATHERING WATER IN JERRYCANS LITTLE GIRL SITTING ON CURB WITH BOTTLE OF WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABDULLAH SAYYID ABDUL RAHIM, WHO LIVES IN THE SLUM, SAYING: "I live in a room with eight kids as you saw. I have nothing, I have no work, I do odd jobs, waiting in a café. I've been here for two years, in this place. I looked for other places to live but
- Embargoed: 30th September 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Egypt
- Country: Egypt
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Environment / Natural World
- Reuters ID: LVA6B8P76UCBTFGT34J2HBCBJPL1
- Story Text: Residents of an east Cairo slum live in homes built on the unstable slopes of the Moqattam plateau, where more than 80 people died in a rock slide nearby recently.
For the residents of Razaz, a small brick shanty town built on Cairo's Moqattam plateau, the boulders that surround them are a constant reminder of the fragility of the sparse existence they have carved out for themselves.
The daily struggle to makemeet is now complicated by fears that the mountain that is their home could come down on them, just as it did in nearby Manshiyet Nasser, where a rockslide killed at least 82 people in a similar village last week.
High above the skyline of Cairo's teeming metropolis, the people of Razaz have made their homes on the city's margins. Theirs is a village that was, for a long time, off the municipal map and without basic services.
But with the recent rockslide in Manshiyet Nasser, where boulders the size of apartment buildings crushed small, densely packed houses last week, these forgotten corners have suddenly and tragically become less obscure.
Hanan Mustafa Hassan says that while they are afraid that a similar disaster may befall them, they are more concerned with the basic services.
"I'm afraid, but what can I do? My husband works day to day and I can't live in an expensive area. And here our only problem is water, water and sewage and things like that. We could live here comfortably if they gave us water and things like that - the only issue is if we are walking in the street, whatever falls on us will fall on us. If its our time, it will fall.
I've been living here for twenty years, without lights and without water. And when they put in the lights, it cost 2,000 pounds. And my husband earns his living day to day and has liver problems - I have the papers," she said.
While light has come to those residents of Razaz who could afford to have electricity installed, the lack of drinking water means tremendous hardship.
Because of the unforgiving landscape many have to descend the steep slopes to bring back jerrycans of drinking water to their homes, or to pay those who own donkeys to transport them.
But it is the stark tragedy in Manshiyet Nasser, where it is estimated that the already high death toll may yet rise, that has focused the minds of many on their perilous surroundings.
Abdul Wahab Mustafa Hasan says that the unstable grounds around him gave way one day as he was carrying his daughter on the plateau.
"I was passing by over there with my little girl, I was carrying her, I was above the roof, passing over there, and I fell from the top of the mountain, and during this the stone that you see over there, it came loose fell down on my leg. The ambulance came and put needles in my leg. Until then I walked very quickly, if someone wanted to catch me they had to run. Now I walk on crutches," he said.
Most of the residents of Razaz eek out a living doing odd jobs or selling goods in sidewalk stalls in Cairo.
And with incomes so low and spiralling inflation in Cairo, even the relatively small amount they have to pay for water is a burden most cannot bear.
"A jerry can for a pound. A jerry can for a pound, I swear. I mean the four jerry cans for four pounds. I earn six or seven pounds in a day, so where should I get this from? No sewage, no water. Where? I have five, six kids, what can I do?" said one slum resident.
Most of the poverty stricken residents of the shantytown have migrated from the countryside, mainly southern Egypt, and say they would move elsewhere to less unforgiving surroundings if they had a choice.
"I live in a room with eight kids as you saw. I have nothing, I have no work, I do odd jobs, waiting in a café. I've been here for two years, in this place. I looked for other places to live but I found nothing but this room. And there is very little water, as you see. I don't know where to take my wife and kids," said Abdullah Sayyid Abdul Rahim.
The tragic rockfall in Manshiyet Nasser has made many Egyptians aware of forgotten towns like Razaz for the first time. But even as the world becomes aware of the daily dangers and struggles they face, they have little hope that their lives will change for the better as a result. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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