Cairo Governor Says City Will Be Slum-Free by End of 2019

In early 2018, Egypt's Housing Ministry made the ambitious announcement that slums would become but a memory to Egyptians by the end of 2019. Following up on that, Cairo governor, Khaled Abdel-Aal, made an announcement on Friday, in which he also went public with the government's plans to end slums in Cairo, which occupy roughly two thirds of the city's metropolitan area, by the end of this year, reports Egypt Independent.

Abdel-Aal said that 40,000 housing units have been built to accommodate a portion of Cairene slum residents, adding that EGP 10 billion have been allocated to the project.

Furthermore, Abdel-Aal said that new urban centers and districts will be built to accommodate those who will have to be relocated during the process, and that the government is planning to lift their living standards by providing them with more job and economical opportunities.  

Residents of slums make up 40% of Egypt's total population, with an estimated total of 258 informal settlements spread around the country. In 2015, pre-inflation, a government official said that eliminating slums entirely would cost the Egyptian government a figure between EGP 200 and EGP 250 billion.