The government has allocated additional 300m EGP for urban upgrading the slums in Egypt, increasing the total amount set for the activity to 600m EGP. Urban Upgrading and Slums spokesperson Dr. Sherif Al Gouhary has added that 25% of the Property Tax revenues will be channeled directly into upgrading the slums.
The upgrading project, according to the Egypt Minister of Urban Upgrading and Slums Dr. Liala Eskander, will target all governorates. This means that the project will target to improve the status of 1300 and 1750 slums that accommodates as many as 15 million Egyptians. To increase the total funding, the government would seek more sources.
Millions of impoverished Egyptians live in these slums across major cities in the country, and the announcement is good news. Indeed, earlier report (Decision Support Center report) indicated that 37.5 percent of the total area of 226 Egyptian cities was occupied by slums. Egypt slum life has been very poor because the slums are built haphazardly on former agricultural wasteland. These slums are also said to host terrorists. While 3% of the slum areas are unsafe, about 37.5% of the areas constitute unplanned settlements.
On June this year, the government established a special ministry, the Ministry of Urban Development, formerly known as the Ministry for Slums.
