cairo essay hossni and tony

Hossni Elshorafa And Antonio AriaS ESSAY

Cairo, Egypt first was named Al-Fustat it was founded in A.D 641 as a military

camp by the Amr ibn al-'As. Then Jawhar the leader of the Fatimids in A.D 969 later

changed the city’s name to al-Qahirah, or Cairo. Present day Cairo has a population of

6,789,479 in the city and in the metropolitan area it has a population of 14,872,204

people living in it. Cairo is the largest city in Africa. Cairo is located on the banks of the

Nile River and also in the banks of the Delta River. What makes Cairo so astonishing is

that it has been settled for more than 6000 years and has been ruled by many great kings

and has been the capital of many Egyptian civilizations. Cairo has three major sectors

they are Kaliobia, Giza, Cairo.

Cairo attracts many people throughout the world because of its great tourist sites

that you can visit. It home to the great pyramids, which are The great pyramid of Giza,

the pyramid of kafhre and the

pyramid of Menkaura. There is

also one great sculpture that

atteacts a lot of tourist that is

the Sphinx which is located in

front of the pyramids. It was

built in 2530 BC by the

pharaoh Khafre.

Cairo had many problem, that unfortunately won't fit in either, our presentation nor our

papers, but the main problems are; Population problem, income gap, education, garbage

problem, water problem, we will discuss these problems thoroughly; illustrate how these

problems are effecting the city.


Cairo Population problem is esteemed to be the largest growth in Egypt, since

Egypt's population doubled to 82 million since 1981. In Cairo, Egypt's capital and the

seat of the citizens' revolution, some districts hold more than 41,000 people per square

kilometer, or 100,000 per square mile. Manhattan, by comparison, has about 27,000

people per square

kilometer. More

than 15 million

Egyptians live on

less than $1 a day,

a key factor driving

last month's

protests. The divide in Egypt between rich and poor, where resistance to birth control is

high, is startling. Even though Egypt has severely limited resources, especially fertile

land and water (only 3 inches of rain falls annually), the numbers of poor steadily

increases. In past years, the Egyptian government mounted an aggressive but

unsuccessful advertising campaign to limit new births. One motto: "Before you add

another baby, make sure his needs are secured." Egypt offers free education and well-

established literacy programs. But the numbers of Egyptian illiterates, one in every four

or nearly 17 million, remains unchanged over the last two decades. Educators must teach

1.4 million Egyptians to read and write annually simply to keep up with the country's

population growth. And for every 700, 000 who learn to read, the literacy rate is only

reduced by one percent. Other variables that limit access to education include the high

post-puberty drop out rate for teenage girls and the inability of poor parents to pay for


transportation or the textbooks. Nearly 70 percent of women, Egypt's mothers and future

mothers, are illiterate. Egypt’s population swells by approximately 1.5 million. The

United Nations projects that Egypt will grow from 95.6 million in 2026 to 114.8 million

in 2065 when it will finally stabilize.

Economic development is stalled and quality of life eroded because of reduced access to

jobs, education, water and food.

The Garbage problem in Cairo, Egypt is even more completed, because its had

some un getting use to, The traditional way is that of the zabbaleen, up to 150,000

informal garbage men who go door to door and collect trash for a minimal fee, transport

it to their own neighborhoods and

sort out the recyclables. The organic

material is fed to pigs. (It's a

Christian-dominated industry;

Muslims shun the animals.) The

result has been an astounding

recycling rate of around 80 percent,

and an informal recycling business in

which they invested a cumulative $150 million over the past 40 years, according to

Iskandar. In Manshiet Nasr, the largest of six garbage cities in Cairo, whole families

work at recycling and thousands of workshops produce everything from plastic mats to

shoe heels and clothes hangers. But the zabbaleen couldn't keep up with population

growth. So in 2003, the Mubarak government, as part of a failed bid to host the soccer

World Cup, contracted international companies to take up garbage collection. But it


threw the system into chaos. The companies worked with dumpsters, but Cairenes didn't

use them, having grown used to the zabbaleen coming to their doorstep. Many resented

paying both the companies and the zabbaleen. And the zabbaleen resented being

squeezed out by the companies. Fights broke out over collecting schedules and routes.

Many dumpsters disappeared. Then came the swine flu panic of 2009. Deprived of their

pigs, the zabbaleen no longer had any interest in collecting organic waste. The end result:

The government waste department can't cope, the companies don't have dumpsters or the

zabbaleen don't come through. So on any given day – or stretch of days – a given

neighborhood becomes a "no-man's land" of garbage. Instead, there are the diggers, who

take what can be recycled and sell it to the zabbaleen, leaving the food scraps strewn on

the streets. The surrounding desert makes a useful trash bin and the government operates

half-dozen dumps, which anyone can use for a fee. The private companies have their own

landfills next to composting plants in outlying cities around Cairo. But only about 3

percent of the trash they gather is recycled, according to a government study cited by

Iskandar.

Moreover, Egypt offers free education and well-established literacy programs. But the

numbers of Egyptian illiterates, one in every four or

nearly 17 million, remains unchanged over the last two

decades. Educators must teach 1.4 million Egyptians to

read and write annually simply to keep up with the

country's population growth. And for every 700, 000 who

learn to read, the literacy rate is only reduced by one


percent. Other variables that limit access to education include the high post-puberty drop

out rate for teenage girls and the inability of poor parents to pay for transportation or the

textbooks. Nearly 70 percent of women, Egypt's mothers and future mothers, are

illiterate. Egypt’s population swells by approximately 1.5 million. The United Nations

projects that Egypt will grow from 95.6 million in 2026 to 114.8 million in 2065 when it

will finally stabilize. Economic development is stalled and quality of life eroded because

of reduced access to, education, water and food.

Income gap

The income gap in Cairo is really bad its either you are rich or you are poor. And

if you rich you get to basically do what ever you want no one can tell you anything cause

money talks. If your poor then nobody even pay attention to what you have to say or want

to do. For example if a policemen ever

were to stop you and you have money

you can get yourself out of it by simply

just offering them someone money that’s

how bad the gap between the rich and

poor. According to United Nations 20 to

30 percent of the population live below

the poverty line. Which cause a lot of people to live in areas where its not suitable. Cairo

is divided in many parts some of the upper class parts of the city are Garden city, al-

Zamalek, and Nasr new city, which in this in these parts the wealthy live. These

communities have private schools, popular shopping centers that feature the good

imported features that only the rich can afford. Yet not far from these rich neighborhoods,


a significant number of poor Egyptians live in poor and overcrowded housing, limited

food supply, and inadequate access to clean water, good quality health care, or education.

Cairo is also separated by that the north is mostly were all the rich people live and the

poor people tend to live to the south of the city in rural areas were there is hardly any

water and any good living conditions. In estimated 65% of the city’s population resides in

informal settlements. But the government is saying that it working to making apartments

and housing complexes to help the urban development part of the city because it wants to

attract more and more tourist to its city so the city can have a greater gdp because about

20 % of the population are living under the poverty line which it does not help the city at

all. But some things that the government has done for the low income people is that they

have lowered the cost in housing prices which help the low income families a lot. What

also the government has been establishing is providing free housing to the families that

cannot afford the rent they simply give them a house in which to live in. It has also tried

to establish projects which the government plan to the Suez canal development project

which would bring tremendous projects which would help build 250,000 housing units as

well as create jobs for the lower income people which is much needed. But the main

thing that would help the income gap between the upper class and lower class would be

to stop the corruption in the government because the rich control about 36% of Cairo.

Which is not fair to the lower class the government need to be fair in want gets

distributed were most of the money that Cairo make it goes to the wealthy people. The

poor hardly see any of the money they do not get help in anyway if Cairo wants to

become a better city and help Egypt become a better country it needs to stop the

corruption in the government.


Water Problem

A big problem that Cairo faces is its water problem. Which is another thing that is

corrupted by the government. The government controls were the water goes and how

much it is given of course the rich gets the majority of the water and the poor people

hardly get any water. But also corporations pay more money to the government so they

too get more water. But what is happening to the water is that its slowly getting polluted

everyday not only by Cairo but also by everyone in Egypt. All the villages are washing

their donkeys on the Nile River, which is the most important part of the water system to

Cairo. But more and more people are simply throwing their thrash to the Nile River

which flows upstream that carry the thrash northward and

ultimately affects everyone in the country. With the water

being polluted it causes great harm to everyone that’s

why many people prefer to buy bottled water rather than

to drink and use the tap water that comes out the water

pipes. What the government really needs to do is to make

more regulations to industrial companies because they are

the main reason water is getting polluted and being

intoxicated with deadly bacteria’s it is said that about

80% of the industrial waste is dumped into the Nile River, canals, municipal sewerage

systems. As a result more and more water is affecting the tourism hotels the shore lines

for fishing it will cost not only Cairo but it will also cost Egypt in the future to lose

money but also lose a lot of lives, If the government do not do something about their


water system problem. A lot of children die every year due to health risks of water and

sewer problems, about 17,000 children die each year from diarrhea problems. The reason

why people feel free to pollute the canals and rivers is because the people say that their

isn’t any were else to throw away their thrash and the government does not have any

regulations that tell the people that they cannot throw their thrash in the canals. But what

the government is trying to do to fix this problem is that they are trying to find ways to

refuse the sewage water, try and see if they could use the sea water by doing reverse

osmosis in the sea water but some experts believe that they could plan all of that out but

the ultimate question would be can they afford to establish such projects, they also fear

that they would have to increase the taxes so that they can fund the water system projects.

What the government is also doing is they want to get help with some money in helping

them fix the sewer system pipes a lot are broken and need repairs that could be a big step

in helping the water system problem that they have.

In conclusion in order for Cairo to be a successful city and fix its urban problems

and problems in general it has to first Fix its Population, education, Garbage, and Income

cap. They need to stop the corruption that goes on in the country and what we think that

can help fix the these issues s that simply the government has to become more strict in

regulations and be ultimately. Be fair with everyone and not just favor the rich they need

to help out the slums so they can all as one, help build up Cairo.

BY HOSSNI ELSHORAFA AND ANTONIO ARIAS

cairo essay hossni and tony

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