Although winter has not yet started, the northern coasts of Egypt have been hit by heavy rain since mid-November, claiming many lives. Faulty infrastructure and officials slow to react to the first challenges of the season have led to the flooding of tens of villages and cities especially in Beheira and Alexandria Governorates.
Disaster zone
Although winter has not yet started, the northern coasts of Egypt have been hit by heavy rain since mid-November, claiming many lives. Faulty infrastructure and officials slow to react to the first challenges of the season have led to the flooding of tens of villages and cities especially in Beheira and Alexandria Governorates.
Disaster zone
Drains unable to dispose of rainwater turned Alexandria into a disaster area overnight on November 4. Five people died by drowning or electrocution when a tram cable fell into a flooded street. In addition, one person died after falling in a manhole in Manshiya in downtown Alexandria. Another woman was burnt to death when the severed cable caused a fire to break out in her apartment.
Thirty-five buildings partially or totally collapsed, sending angry residents to demand the resignation of the governor and derelict officials. Some blame officials because water removal efforts were only focused on tourist areas like Corniche Road and Gamal Abdel Nasser Street, while the slums of Amiriya and Wassat were ignored.
“We have drowned twice in rainwater,” says Suad Abu Taleb, a 40-year-old housewife who lives in Ezbet Matar. “No official has listened to our voices when our houses and children were drowned in 1.5 meters of rainwater. We had to enter our houses from the windows. We have been suffering from this issue for five years because of the sewage system that is an utter failure.”
Taleb demands the resignation and prosecution of negligent officials of the Alexandria Water and Sanitation Company (AWSC).
Sa’eed Abdurrahman, a pensioner who lives in the same area, says both his bed and apartment were swept away by the deluge of water. “My apartment has become uninhabitable,” says Abdurrahman. He believes residents’ losses to be in the millions because many stores and shops have been swamped by rainwater and sewage.
Many other areas were affected by the crisis, including the 30 villages in the Amiriya area, west of Alexandria, where hundreds of acres were submerged. Tens of villages and slums in the areas of Siouf, Awayed and Mountazah suffered from a collapsed sewage system. This pushed hundreds of residents to cut off the Alexandria-Cairo Highway and stop the Abu Qir train for several hours, when they took to the street to demand the removal of rainwater. Eventually, the armed forces intervened and talked them into opening back the road and railway.
Alexandria Governor Hani Missiri, criticized by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail for slow response, resigned and Ismail promised to punish AWSC officials responsible for the crisis.
Major General Yousry Henry, head of AWSC, said all water drains along the Corniche Road have been checked in preparation for the coming storms. He urges the owners of clubs, hotels and cafeterias alongside the Corniche to keep the drains open during storms to avoid flooding the road and disrupting traffic.
“Even if the governor has been replaced 100 times, problems would persist as long as officials are corrupt,” says Taleb. “They only care about those who live by the sea, while ignoring the poor.”
Beheira hit hard
When Beheira was hit by the second wave of bad weather on November 4, several villages were flooded and 26 people died by drowning or electrocution, including 16 from Affouna in Wadi El Natrun, where all 160 houses in the area were submerged because of its low altitude. Beheira Governor Mohammad Sultan issued a decision to move the residents from Affouna to another area and rebuild it on a 14-acre area.
“The government only responds after we die,” says Fathi Mahmud, a driver who lives in Ezbet Tahreer in Ganaklis area near the city of Abu el-Matamir. He claims that rainwater mixed with sewage flooded some 500 houses in Ezbet Tahreer – threatening a health disaster by mixing drinking water with sewage.
Most residents, says Mahmud, evacuated their ground floors and are living on upper floors, and some even have had to put their furniture on the roof and cover it with plastic bags to prevent damage. However, the poor and those with one-story houses have been forced to abandon their homes or live on the roof.
New means of transportation
Rainwater height rose over two meters in the city of Idku in Beheira Governorate, which forced people to use feluccas (wooden sail boats) as transportation. Two hundred shops and houses were deluged and two million pounds worth of merchandise was damaged.
Mohammad Fathi, an employee, says water flooded everything and movement was no longer possible, forcing locals to pump water from houses to the already flooded road.
Livelihoods lost
Secretary of the Agricultural Society in the city of Rashid Khamis Mansour says the storm damaged thousands of trees and caused them to fall, especially guavas and palm trees. He estimated losses at 10,000 Egyptian pounds (US $1276) per acre, meaning a total agricultural loss exceeding US $13,000,000.
Mansour says more than 150 farmers filed records of their losses with the police station, and when the numbers of farmers increased, they were asked by the station’s officials to file records with the City Council. Indeed, 200 other farmers filed records demanding that the Agricultural Society inspect their land and compensate them.
Mohammad Shahhat, a farmer, says he lost nearly 300 palm trees that used to produce 150 kilograms each, and also 10 acres of oranges that fell because of the strong wind that hit the city. “I have lost everything,” he says.
Getting to the other side
Amiriya villagers have come to use tractors for transportation on the rugged roads that have turned into swamps. Others have built bridges of stone to but many do not use them and have fallen in the sewage-infested rainwater.
The easiest solution, many believe is to simply take off one’s clothing and wade over to the other side. Taleb however says this prospect is a dangerous one due to bare cables left lying in water.
