A Solution: Urban Chaos in Cairo What is known today as the Greater Cairo Region is in fact a combination of a number of neighbouring cities and governorates (including Cairo, Giza, Helwan, Qalyubia and 6th of October. Since the first establishment in the region, Al- Fustat in 641 AD, Cairo was in continuous growth. The numerous and different reigns over Egypt since the establishment of Cairo, different Islamic periods, Ottoman, French, English until the revolution in 1952, have led to the inconsistency in development and urban planning which gave rise to cumulative problems. During the course of the last fifty years, the population of Cairo has increased dramatically as a result of high birth rates and large rural-urban migration from other parts of the country (Yousry and Aboul Atta). Currently Cairo is considered one of the biggest cities in the world with a population averaging at 14-15 million (Sims, 2003). The fast and continued increase in the population has been a major urban challenge that the city encountered. Today, the urban landscape of the Greater Cairo Region (GCR) is somewhat unclear: main built up, dense areas are surrounded by a number of satellite settlements at the periphery, but most importantly occupied by infinite unplanned and random constructions in the core and surroundings of the city. Informal settlements, that are named after their informal legal condition, gradually, but rapidly, took over a large area of Cairo’s landscape and crawled over agricultural and deserted land. Informal growth started in Cairo as early as in the 1960s as a response to the increasing unsatisfied demand on housing and the increasing prices of land and houses inside the formal developed areas of the city. At their start, informal constructions were mostly at the periphery of the city on agricultural land and were considered to be a strange and odd phenomenon (Kamel, 2010). Due to the continued political instability since the 1960s till the end of the 1970s, most funds were invested in military (Kamel, 2010) ignoring many interior problems including the urban development problem resulting in the lack of affordable public housing and the continued inaccessibility of land and houses inside of Cairo for a large portion of the population. Since the start of the 1990s, informal settlements became “unstoppable”, fast expanding and they represented 39% of Cairo‘s residential units (Harre-Roggers, 2006). Currently, the situation of informal settlements has become the main problem and represents a major challenge in the way of Cairo’s urban and economic development (Yousry and Aboul Atta). However, instead of providing guidance for these informal constructions, the government, in the field of research and implementation, focuses on building new cities (as part of the new town policy) and neglects the growing and exploding informal constructions (Kipper). Despite the extensive research done by different national and international institutions and organizations concerning the urban state and development of Cairo, a very small number of feasible and realistic solutions for informal settlements are proposed (Goubran, 2010). The National Housing and Development Project that was established in the 1990s, and still functioning until today, initially aimed to integrate the solution of many problems, such as informal settlement, over density in the city’s core and housing deficiency, by offering a master plan of Cairo founded on the strategy of using new towns and satellites around the main city of Cairo. (El-Kouedi and Madbouly, 2007). This plan was supported by new rules that incriminate construction on agricultural land and construction without acquiring permits (Harre-Rogers, 2006). However, such rules were not implemented strictly and the new towns policy proved to be inefficient in providing affordable housing options as most of the newly established satellites became place for new high class “gated” compounds (Sorkin, 2001). Living environment and housing choices of the low income sector of society were ignored by this project: it failed to provide the benefits that informal settlements provide for their low income inhabitants such as self-sufficiency, proximity to work and to the city, sense of safety and the sense of participation in different activities within the settlement’s community (Kipper). It is clear that a change in the approach used to solve the problem of informal growth is necessary. Up till the current moment, all plans were based on a top-bottom approach: where a plan is proposed and then tested by implementing it; the repeated failure of plans has led to increase complexity of the situation of informal settlements in Cairo (Musa and Can Kats.). However, using a bottom-top approach, where the needs, the benefits the low income portion of society is looking for and the priorities on which residential choices are made are used to formulate an action plan, is the most reliable solution for the problem of informal settlements in Cairo. Such an approach, where people’s needs and preferences are prioritized, will help to evoke community involvement and support for the plan which could be beneficial to solve a complex problem such as informal settlements. The approach will demand the collaboration of different governmental institutions such as the Ministry of Utilities, Housing and Urban Development and the National Centre of Planning along with other nongovernmental organization and private corporation working in the field of urban development. However, this approach should start with intensive updates of the data bases and maps of the current constructions and buildings in the different areas of the city, followed by establishing new rules and regulation for construction, creating various renewal plans and legalization of established informal areas in order to ameliorate the living conditions of their inhabitants and proceeded by strong implementation of laws and regulations. Developing a full updated data base of all current constructions, formal and informal, in all the different parts of the Greater Cairo Region is the right starting point for any rescue plan for the situation of informal settlements. A big part of the complexity of the problem lies in the lack of reliable updated systematic and accurate information and data about Cairo’s informal construction and its inhabitants (Kamel, 2010). Using new technologies such as satellite imaging and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping along with field and site studies (Yin and Stewart, 2005), engineers and urban planners working with national research centres should be able to develop a full detailed maps and data bases of Cairo’s built up urban areas both formal and informal. Such a data base will include information about each building by itself: how many floors, its construction method, its safety, any more details concerning any major flaws observed and its legal situation. It will also include information about buildings’ inhabitants such as: the number of people living in each the building, their economic state, the number of occupied and vacant units and whether units are rented or sold to their inhabitants. Such information will help researchers to develop of a more realistic plan via having a more accurate view on the real urban state of Cairo. Along with such a mapping task, a large number of surveys and interviews of various types will be conducted the inhabitants of different areas of Cairo (based on random sampling) will take place. Such interviews will be aiming to understand the needs, complaints and suggestions the inhabitants of different regions of Cairo, especially of those living in the poorer informal areas of Cairo. These interviews will be the first example of community involvement in the rescue plan: as the suggestions and views of the people will contribute in the establishment and implementation of the plans. Other surveys will be aiming to update studies concerning the socio-economic state of the different areas. Information gathered from these surveys will help in the establishment of rescue plans due to the proven strong interrelation between the urban landscape and the social and economic states of different regions (Stewart, 1999). Areas which suffer from the overwhelming informal growth will be prioritized in all studies due to the lack of information and data concerning their situation and their inhabitants (Sims, 2003). Analyzing all the different information collected and integrating it all with the initial maps and data base, urban experts should be able to identify different growth patterns, needs, problems and deficiencies in the different areas of Cairo. Working in collaboration with the governorates constituting the Greater Cairo Region, this analysis will lead to the creation of construction contour lines for the different areas of Cairo depending on its needs and its prospective growth needs. These contour lines represent boundaries in which new constructions could be built after being granted the legal permits to insure their safety and coherence with the surrounding environment. Facilitated procedures for construction permits acquisition within contour lines will be implemented. However, building outside the specified zone will remain strongly incriminated (El-Kouedi and Madbouly, 2007). Within these contour lines of each area or settlement studying and developing different rescue plans will the next step of the project. These plans will depend on the registered needs and suggestions of the people along with the different independent problems or flaws each area faces. The priority of renewal plans implementation will be given to informal settlements, areas with low economic standards, suffering the most from informal growth and lack of services and infrastructure. After identifying and understanding the condition, problems and flaws in all residential, industrial and investment areas of Cairo, different actions plans, specific to each areas, are going to be decided aiming to correct problems and complains recorded in the first step of the project. The implementation of the plans will require the collaboration of a big number of governmental institutions in the fields or architecture, construction and many others along with funds from international organizations and help of NGO-s (Kamel, 2010). The involvement and collaboration with the inhabitants living in each area will constitute a main element on which the success of the plan will depend upon as an integral part of the bottom up approach (Musa & Can Kats). The steps and priority of renewal and renovation in all the plans implemented will be as following: firstly, completing and renewing basic infrastructure (insuring the availability of all services and life needs) in the area; secondly, insuring the safety of all the building located inside the construction contour line previously decided and their correspondence with construction laws and regulations; thirdly, providing areas with the important facilities it requires (schools, hospitals, parks, etc. ); and finally, to renew the existing buildings that have any historical relevance. Informal settlements will be the starting point of the project as they remain the focus of this research and project proposal. Due to the very fast expansion of the city in the last few years, the rate of growth and development of infrastructure and basic urban life needs had failed to meet the development rate of the urban build up (Kamel, 2010). For example, according to the National Research Center, forty percent (40%) of Cairo’s population get drinking water for only very few hours each day and a few districts of the greater Cairo Region have no access to drinking water at all (Williams,2008). Such lack of basic life needs (drinking water system, sewage water systems and electric power) and infrastructure is the focus of the first step of the plans. Ensuring that all districts and areas have access to these basic urban life needs is an essential step to insure the success of any further renewal and to insure the upgrade of the living conditions of the inhabitants of Cairo. For this step, civil engineers and development companies (national water company, national electric power company) will perform the most tasks in designing, building and placing these systems in the different areas of Cairo. The following step is to insure that all the buildings located inside the construction contour line in different areas are safe and meet the Egyptian code of building and construction laws and regulations to ensure the safety and comfort of their inhabitants and the area as a whole. This step will be the hardest to implement due to the problems and complications that will arise with the owners and inhabitants of buildings that will have be demolished due to safety issues. Criteria such as complete urban renewal and resettlement, where the owners and inhabitants of demolished buildings receive enough compensation to buy new houses and the land of the demolished buildings are used for other urban purposes, could be one approach to avoid this problem. Also, another solution could rely on relocation, where only the owners of the demolished buildings are compensated and the inhabitants are relocated in temporary or permanent houses depending on the type of work needed to be done in the building (Kamel, 2010). However, due to the difference in the socio-economic states of the different districts in Cairo, both ways could be used depending on preferences of the inhabitants and independent situations. Again this step will require the collaboration of even more organizations due to the strong interaction with inhabitants (that could and will not accept such a project to disturb their daily lives and maybe demolish their homes) and the complications that could arise in the legal courts from the demolishing decisions: the Ministry of Housing and Public services, the National Research Center, Governorates, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Supreme Judicial courts along with construction and contracting companies that will be in charge of the demolishing will have to work in collaboration and in coordination to unsure efficiency and fairness during this step of the project; the rights of the effected inhabitants for reasonable compensations are to be preserved. Next, after studying services that are lacking in these areas, the construction of public services buildings, using lands from the demolished buildings or in other areas inside the construction contour line, will be the next concern of the plan. Schools, hospitals, youth centers, libraries and parks are all constructions that will enrich residential areas and provide comfort and privilege to their inhabitants (Coutsoukis). Since the project will be dealing with all of Cairo’s regions and areas which differ in their needs, building other services such car parking areas, pedestrian walking streets, public transportation stations and even commercial areas would be an important step in integrating the solution for various problems the overpopulated capital is suffering. After all these steps, the renewal of buildings (not only monuments, but also residential, private and governmental buildings) with historical or artistic significance will be carried on under the supervision and responsibility of the ministry of Culture. The reason this proposed project gives less importance (doesn’t priorities) to the renewal of historical monuments, as opposed to some current policies (El- Aref, 2004), is that the plan is aiming to solve the problem of informal construction and urban chaos considering and prioritizing the needs of the inhabitants of Cairo which are interested in the functionality more than the beauty (Musa & Can Kats). Finally, the last steps of the entire project is the implementation of fair and right construction regulation over all areas of Cairo with continued supervision to stop all informal or illegal constructions. An important aspect to be investigated is the different means of financing such proposal. Currently, Funding for most urban projects happen mainly through international organization and aid programs (Kamel, 2010). However, they are inconsistent and will not be able to finance such a mega project. The Egyptian economy, being in its development phase, will hardly afford to finance all the different steps of the proposal specially that the project doesn’t have fast economic revenue. One of the solutions for this challenge could be in the request for international loans from organizations such as the US Aid, UN and the World Bank since the project will be aiming to strongly enhance living conditions of the inhabitants of the Greater Cairo Region which could be in the interest of such international organizations. However, trying to finance the project from only one source is almost impossible. A more feasible solution will incorporate different financing means from national and international levels. Fundraising for such a project nationally and internationally can provide useful help in the financing of the project. As the government is aiming to place property taxes (El Madany, 2008), such governmental income could be dedicated for this project. With a combination of all these different criteria, along with foreign aid and regular national urban development financing plans could offer the solution to the challenge of financing this project that will demand a lot of investment. In Egypt, such a long term plan may face various other problems and challenges besides its financing due to its complexity and high requirements. Another problem that will negatively affect this project is the lack of community involvement. This new approach that will be followed during the course of the project is mainly based on the collaboration between the government and the people to come up with more reliable and realistic solution for Cairo’s urban problems, the absence of community involvement and the lack of input from the people living in the city will create a gap in the project’s base that could lead to its failure (Musa and Can Kats.). This shortage in involvement could be a result of the continued mistrust of the people in the government with all its organizations and institutes. By using different means of publicity and awareness programs the people’s trust in the project could be build up. The will of the people to make their residential areas and their cities they live in a better and beautiful place is the base on which this project is build upon and will prove useful not only for this project but for the conservation of the city’s urban landscape in the future (El- Aref, 2004). Another challenge that could affect the project’s success is the effectiveness of the collaboration between the different institutes and organizations with all their forms, governmental, international or private. In Egypt evidence for the lack of coordination and collaboration between different institutes is apparent in many ways in a number of fields. The project’s requirement for the collaboration of not only intergovernmental institutes but also NGO-s, private owned companies and international organizations will require a lot of effort from this big number of diverse parties. The results of the absence of such collaboration could be dramatic and could threaten the success of the project as a whole. The success of this project will bring a number of benefits to the country and its people: not only will it solve Cairo’s most complicated and biggest urban problem, its informal growth, it will solve with it many other problems such as the lack of services and infrastructure in many areas of the city and it will enhance the city’s tourist industry. For many years, the government has been dealing with the city’s informal growth, lack of infrastructures and services and historical monuments deterioration as different entities (El- Aref, 2004) (Sims, 2003). However, using this new approach, the collaborate work of the Ministry of Housing, Services, and The Ministry of Culture and other non-governmental organizations working in the field of services enhancement and monumental renewal will provide a perfect chance to renew Cairo’s historical areas in a reliable and realistic manner and bring back homogeneity to the city’s urban landscape (Abada). This renewal will improve the people’s will to preserve and to the monuments and their city as a whole. Being part of the renovation process is the best form of lesson for the community to appreciate the beauty of the city (El- Aref, 2004). Most importantly, the living condition of a big percentage of the inhabitants of Cairo, especially the low income portion of society, will be highly improved. For a complex problem such as informal settlements, that has been studied repetitively and that became one of the main components of Cairo’s urban landscape, the only reliable and applicable solution has to be formulated by incorporating the community in the rescue project by prioritizing their needs and suggestions (Musa & Can Kats). This solution project will be based on a bottom-top approach, such an approach can be derived from the observations and studies along with the repeatable failure of the pervious rescue plans that attempted to use a more traditional approach where rules and regulations are proposed and implemented ignoring and disregarding the real needs of the inhabitants of Cairo (Kamel, 2010). Despite the challenges that could be faced during the execution of the project, the benefits that will result from its success are tremendous and could mark a changing point in the modern history of the city. The implementation of this solution could also set an international example for other developing countries and cities suffering from the same phenomenon of informal growth and the new revolutionary approach could provide the subject of many future researches and studies. The main steps of the solution provided can help the National Research Center, the Ministry of Housing and Services, The General Organization For Physical Planning (GPP) and other institutions working in the field of urban development and research are to be used as bold guidelines that outline future plans aiming to renew and restore Cairo’s urban contexts that has been long suffering from informal growth, heterogeneity and chaos.
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