Water Outages During Ramadan in Three Egyptian Cities Spark Protests

Several incidents of water outage have been reported in the first week of Ramadan, prompting residents of Aswan and New Valley governorates to protest, reports Ahram Online.

Instances of public unrest have taken place in Aswan where residents cut off roads to block the outage. In El Koror village, the water company was able to send the residents a supply of water and in Kom Umbo, Aswan the situation was contained after the local authorities peacefully dispersed protestors.

Aswan Governor Magdy Hegazi ordered a probe into the incident after it was implied that “unknown men” were behind the water outage. Hegazi also instructed that the investigation results be made public.

In Al-Kharga, New Valley residents took to the street on Thursday to demand an end to the water outage, but the authorities were able to peacefully disperse the protestors. According to a government official, the water outage is due to the high water consumption in Ramadan which the municipality tried to compensate by sending out water trucks to supply residents with water. However, the residents wouldn’t take the water saying it wasn’t potable. The official also unveiled plans to open a new water station by October to better keep up with the district’s demand.

In Giza, nine neighbourhoods suffered the same problem, however the service was back 48 hours later when the ruptured pipe was fixed. During the outage, 21 trucks of potable water were sent to residents.