The rubble of a collapsed building, rickety furniture, and women in pajamas screaming from the trauma. Men covered with dirt and white dust, trying to salvage whatever they could of their furniture. Children hiding in their mothers’ arms, unaware of the impact of the situation.

 

The rubble of a collapsed building, rickety furniture, and women in pajamas screaming from the trauma. Men covered with dirt and white dust, trying to salvage whatever they could of their furniture. Children hiding in their mothers’ arms, unaware of the impact of the situation.

Such was the scene that dominated the Moharam Bek neighborhood in Alexandria, where a four-story building, home to 12 families, collapsed in mid-November.

Um Islam recalls the moment the building fell down. “I was in the sitting room in my apartment when I felt a strange swinging movement.  At first, I thought it was a strong earthquake, so I immediately took my children and went down to the street in pajamas, and were followed by the rest of the tenants.”

“Out in the street, we saw a white huge cloud caused by the dust of the collapsed building. Only moments after we had left, the whole building fell down. We thanked God for surviving that horrible mishap.”

Nader Sa’eed, a resident, said no removal or restoration orders had been issued before.  He appealed to Counselor Mohammed Atta, the Governor of Alexandria, to provide urgent alternative housing because they could not afford to buy or even rent a house.

Death versus homelessness

The tragedy has hit yet another location.  The staircase and other parts of the third and fourth floor of a building in Abdelmouti Al-Khayyam Street in Bab Sharki neighborhood have also collapsed.  The police and other executive apparatuses ordered the residents to immediately evacuate the building for fear of total collapse. But, the residents refused to obey, knowing that no alternative housing would be provided.

Mahmoud Abdulwahab, a resident, said he had signed an agreement to stay in the building with his family at their own risk, because he knew very well that if he left his apartment, he and his family would end up on the pavement for the rest of their lives. “I would rather die inside my house than await the officials’ apartment”, he added, suggesting that a restoration order had been issued five years earlier, and the building residents appealed for help from the concerned authorities hundreds of times, because they could not afford the restoration cost. “But all these efforts went down the drain,” he said.

Experts: The soil is the culprit

This multifaceted tragedy has become a daily scene in Alexandria’s landscape. News reports about collapsed buildings are now dominating daily newspapers day after day. It is a tragedy caused by climatic and geological problems, combined with the authorities’ negligence, resulting in hundreds of poor people in real trouble.

The focus is on old, neglected buildings, or slums built without controls or government supervision.  According to Abdulsamad Madkour, professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, “The real problem lies in the absence of an engineer in the neighborhood to conduct soil tests.”

The fact is that soil is heavily impacted by sea water.  Noureddine Saadawi, an expert geologist at the University of Alexandria, explains that “soil at coastal areas near the sea is sandy and full of air spaces, just like a dry sponge. When it absorbs water, which usually happens due to leakages caused by buried water and sewage pipes, it becomes soft, leading to the collapse of the structures above.”

The solution, Saadawi believes, is to replace the buried water pipes with suspended plastic pipes, at least for the newly constructed buildings. He also suggests that the Governorate Council should establish committees of expert geologists to check the lands of old building.

Governor assures help is on the way

Thus, experts and stakeholders alike are raising the complaint with the competent authorities. But, is there a political will to use effective solutions? Counselor Mohammad Atta, Governor of Alexandria, has assured that he issued orders to set up a high level technical committee to carry out a full survey of all the collapsed buildings.

He, however, places some blame on the other side. “The main factor causing these collapses is that the residents of buildings with removal orders are reluctant to implement them due to a failure to provide an alternative accommodation for public housing, etc,” Atta said, reiterating that he will seek to resolve the crisis in the near future.

Meanwhile, in Moharam Bek’s collapsed building, victims tried to save what they could from the rubble.  A neighborhood official stood nearby, trying to comfort the victims, assuring them that the governor will soon look into their plight. For now, they have to rely on mere promises.