Image credit: Yahia Shawkat. All rights reserved.Over the last twenty years the Egyptian government has sanctioned two national programs for the development (rather than upgrade) of so-called 'ashwaeyat—literally randomly built housing—more than three programs for subsidised housing, and the establishment of more than five different government agencies to address housing and urban development, not to mention billions in public spending directed to these agencies’ programs.
Despite this, deprived communities still protest the dire state of public services and rising house prices, the government agencies complain of informal urban sprawl on agricultural land, and the media sensationalises the dangerous "'ashwaeyat" and "tomb" dwellers. Is civil administration and planning in Egypt being run professionally according to research and analysis, or is it as ‘random’ as the housing it claims to improve?
The ephemeral definition of 'ashwaeyat
Between 1993 and 2008, 'ashwaeyat were defined as "those [areas] difficult to control in terms of security because of their informal nature", according to a Parliamentary study outlining the first government project for the development of informal areas. This official interest after almost two decades of self-built housing was a reaction to an urban disaster, the earthquake of October 1992 that killed more than 500 people and left ten thousand families homeless; and a political disaster, the 'Republic' or 'Emirate' of Imbaba debacle where media exaggerated the social role played by Jama'a Islamiya after the earthquake in a working class district of Giza.
