Community Solutions to Cairo’s Planning Shortfalls

Batn al-Baqara is an informal settlement corresponding to all of the standard elements qualifying it as a “slum.” [عشوائية] Overcrowded and squalid, Batn al-Baqara is located on the outskirts of historic Old Cairo. The Egyptian Informal Settlement Development Fund (ISDF) has scheduled this community as a level-one “unsafe area,” which means that is has been deemed uninhabitable. In Batn al-Baqara, other hazardous elements are due, rather, to municipal neglect, such as lack of access to safe water, lack of infrastructure for sewage and sanitation, and a lack of consistent and safe access to electricity.

The classification as a level-one unsafe area requires that the community be removed. The Egyptian authorities (GOPP, ISDF) officially count only 22 households in the community, the data collected between HLRN and local partner Ruzza Society for Development (RSD) has estimated the population at 7,740 persons. This official undercounting—like the lack of planning criteria for an “urban” area in Egypt—enables the government to withhold recognition of the community and decline to serve citizens with municipal budgets, utilities and political representation, as well as regularly threaten them with forced evictions.

In a survey of 403 households (1,476 persons), both female and male-headed households, and RSD identified four major development needs for the community: (1) improved sanitation; (2) creation of health clinics; (3) creation of schools; and (4) rebuilding the area. The study also assessed that core physical infrastructure improvements have to be made, as well as interventions to ensure secure tenure and other elements of the human right to housing. Egypt’s obligation to meet these needs falls under international human rights legal instruments, which are constitutionally applicable throughout the state, specifically under Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the local application of treaties under the Egyptian Constitution.

The dilapidated and dangerous living conditions, as well as the lack of water, sanitation and electricity, form part of a pattern of violations of the human right to adequate housing.[i] As an “unrecognized” community, these citizens also face regular threats of forced eviction and displacement without free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and consideration to their rights, including reparations [Arabic], in the case of such gross violations as determined in UN Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/77 [Arabic].

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), in 2011, the average annual salary for families in Egypt’s urban areas was LE 30,205 (€ 3,100), roughly LE 2,517 (€ 260) monthly. However, the average monthly salary for Batn al-Baqara residents was found to be LE 653.69 (€ 69), with women averaging only LE 506.12 (€ 53) monthly.[ii] This limited income is stretched further for many families in order to cope with the lack of services, as the government does not provide them. This stark difference is exacerbated and will continue for future generations that lack access to education, as there are no schools in the community. These conditions impede access to decent work and realization of the human right to an adequate standard of living.

Without sewage systems, many households either pay approximately LE200 (€) monthly for twice-monthly septic tank [transh] evacuation. Those families that cannot afford this cost must find another alternative. Regardless, the lack of sanitation facilities poses a grave threat the human right to health (article 12, ICESCR), while also stretching very limited financial resources required for other necessities.

In Batn al-Baqara, out data reveals that 14.1% of the households are female headed, which is slightly above the estimated national average of 13.4%. The study found that an estimated 42% of women in this community are homemakers and do not have independent income. With a nearly equal male-female population ratio (49% women, 51% men), it is imperative that women’s issues be given special focus, especially as societal structures often result in disproportionate economic and social violence toward women. In this community, it is evident that women suffer a disproportionately higher deprivation of education, literacy rate and low income, among other quality-of-life indicators, as compared to men.

The Next Steps for Batn al-Baqara

A lack of secure tenure should not be used as a pretext for the government to engage in forced evictions, or to withhold basic services and needs of the community. This multiple violation breaches state obligations to uphold the social function of property, which the Egyptian Constitution had guaranteed since 1952, and is enshrined in legislation and jurisprudence; article 802 of Egyptian Civil Code provides that “property is not an absolute right and/or limitless, it has a social function.” Moreover, the CESCR’s General Comment No. 4 [Arabic] interprets corresponding treaty obligations call for states parties to “take immediate measures aimed at conferring legal security of tenure upon those persons and households currently lacking such protection, in genuine consultation with affected persons and groups.”[iii]

Our surveys revealed that some 45 households in Batn al-Baqara have obtained legal tenure through the Cairo Governorate formally recognizing their right to use (intifa’) of their housing, which indicates that tenure security can be obtained given the requisite political will of the government. While it is understood that the residents actually pay modest rent to the governorate, local understanding varies as to whether that tenure extends to the land as well, or only the housing on it. The selective rate of formal tenure creates a sort of social hierarchy that holds the potential to erode social solidarity, lead to misunderstandings and unrealistic expectations of land-tenure recognition.

For this community, it is critical that the Government of Egypt recognize and fulfill its international human rights obligations, at local, regional and national levels. This would include the provision of health-care and education facilities, water and sanitation infrastructure, electricity and security, as well as the corresponding process rights (participation, information, freedom of peaceful assembly, etc.). Additionally, it is imperative that families have secure tenure recognition from the government to protect against forced eviction, and to ensure that, in the case of relocation, they are ensured free, prior and informed consent, appropriate compensation, resettlement and rehabilitation.

Community Solutions

Any solutions to this community’s needs must be found in direct consultation with the inhabitants of Batn al-Baqara. The persons of this community have worked together with HLRN and RSD to draft two alternative development plans. The first plan includes a limited intervention through the provision of basic needs for facilities and basic services, as well as attention to the buildings that require urgent maintenance. Also the creation of bus stations to allow laborers to access their places of work.

The second plan would entail a greater dialogue between the public owner of the land and the current residents, which would entail the owner to make improvements with the direct support and assistance of the community and in cooperation with the governor. These improvements also would create housing development to benefit the residents as well as the commercials interests of the land owner.