Cairo: Part 3

According to the OECD (2010), Egypt has now achieved 100% coverage of clean drinking water. Whilst this may be true, drinking water is most accessible to those in affluent areas. Those in the slums (ashwa’iyyat) however, tend to have to travel further. Women and girls in particular are burdened with the traditional duty to fetch and carry water from clean water sources. This has led to chronic back and spinal problems (Gharzeddine, 2007). For practicality purposes, the females of the households may sometimes choose to fetch water from closer sources, which may be unreliable. The OECD (2010) however, does acknowledge that wastewater services only have a 55% coverage throughout Egypt. Organisations such as the National Organisation for Potable Water and Sewage Drainage, plans, designs and constructs municipal water purification plants. Operations and maintenance services are delegated to public/private companies, authorities and governorates. Public and private partnerships have been formed to develop the water and sanitation systems of Cairo and projects, such as the New Cairo Wastewater Treatment Plant, have been effective.

Ahmed and Ashour (2009) however, claim that the Cairo Water Authority has 13 water treatment plants throughout the city. Although a majority of the population receive potable water through individual linkages to their home, many apartments and other housing complexes do not actually have individual connection to each residence, due to lack of indoor plumbing. Poorer areas often have access to communal taps, however long queues tend to accumulate. In extremely poor areas, which in fact do not have feasible, practical access to even communal taps, the residents tend to be coerced into buying unsafe water at high prices. It is also stipulated that daily water usage exceeds the capacity of the sewage system, giving rise to ‘standing pools of raw sewage in the streets and in the water table’. The deterioration of water and sanitation quality in Cairo is partially attributed to increasing strain from population growth. As well as the emergence of slums, a more formal proactive approach, has been to create additional areas such as ‘New Cairo’ to support the surplus population.  

Ultimately, more is being done to treat the water and sanitation crisis in Cairo. However, due to a lack of infrastructure, the poorest are not reaping the benefits from improvements to the water and sanitation system. Additionally, the wastewater and sewage system are not as developed as the water distribution system. Compounded with leaky pipes, these variables lead to an increasingly more polluted Nile, and in turn, pollutes Cairo’s water supply. However, Cairo and Lagos are not the only cities in Africa that face these various problems of inequality in water and sanitation distribution. Next post will aim to provide additional evidence that unequal distribution of water and sanitation is rife throughout Africa, and is further exacerbated by exponentially increasing populations.