Egypt spent $1.7bn on slums over 4 years, says official

Egypt has spent a total of 27 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.7 billion) on developing slum areas across the country over the past four years, the general coordinator of the state-run Informal Settlements Development Fund (ISDF) announced yesterday.

“Since 2016 until now, the government’s total spent on the development of slums amounted to more than 27 billion pounds ($1.7 billion), compared to a total of 650 million pounds ($41.8 million) during the period from 2008 to 2014,” Ihab Hanafi said in a TV interview.

Hanafi stressed that the slums development file was “linked to Egypt’s security, education and public health development,” describing the matter as “thorny”.

Egypt is home to 1,100 slum areas, 350 of which are in and around Cairo. In addition to their lack of basic facilities such as electricity, running water, and sewage, many of those slums are designated as “unsafe zones”.

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