From a week ago, East Cairo technically froze for nearly 8 hours or even more because of the rainfall.
The streets and tunnels were flooded for hours, people stuck in their buses and children in their school buses till from afternoon till the early hours of the morning.
Up till now, there is no official or unofficial estimation for the economic losses resulted on that day or the whole wave of bad weather conditions that followed it.
Egyptians began to ask questions as they should about why we do not have a proper rain drainage system to save the capital from flash floods like what we saw last week.
The answer came from the cabinet spokesperson Nader Assad who said on an Egyptian TV channel the following :
I know that the initial cost of building the biggest mosque and church in the New Administrative Capital that was inaugurated and only used for official ceremonies is LE 400 million.
I know that Arab Contractors began to construct another huge mosque in the New Administrative Capital which no one lives in currently and has got the biggest Mosque in Egypt with a cost nearly LE 800 Million.
In September 2018, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated the Regional Ring Road.
It was constructed by both the ministry of transportation and the Egyptian armed forces’ engineering authority.
The Regional Ring road is then said to be the biggest and longest in the Middle East according to the official statements.
The officials say the last phase only of constructing that highway cost LE 9 billion.
Part of that Regional Ring road collapsed because of the rain last week, about 135 meters and a depth of 30 meters according to Pro-regime El-Balad News.
In a comment on that collapse, Current minister of transportation and former head of engineering authority that supervised partially the construction of that ring road said what happened last week was unexpected and that the heavy rain floods came from another direction than the expected one.
I do not know how much the cost to fix the ring road but I know this incident opens a door to million questions about the safety of roads in Egypt and their construction system.
During the weekend, Egyptians waited for the very rare Medicane rainstorm but thank God it did not but it did hit the country, the Egyptian government would have huge financial problems.
The current Egyptian government thinks LE 300 billion rain drainage system for Great Cairo province “Cover three main big governorates with a population of over 23 million people at the best estimations”.
On Friday Tourism ministry issued its ordered the tourist agencies and companies to suspend tourist trips in all governorates nationwide on Friday because of the expected rain and thunderstorms for 48 hours.
It is a wise decision for the sake of safety for both tourists and locals who work in tourism.
I think there were financial losses because of such decisions and I think those losses would be less if there is a proper rain drainage system.
Needless to say, since 2015 Egyptian officials admitted in clear words that Egypt had entered water poverty especially Ethiopia does not want to back off and listen to the Egyptian demands when it comes to the first filling policies of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Thus, it is wise for the Egyptian government to invest rain drainage system infrastructure that can help in saving rainwater or rain harvesting for future use.
Yes, spend billions of pounds on such project because we have got a climate change going on.
In May 2018, the ministry of irrigation issued a report saying that as climate change worldwide, heavy rainfall will be more common in Egypt and that there are 11 Egyptian governorates that are vulnerable to floods.
Those governorates are Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Asyut, Sohag, Beni Suef, New Valley, and South and North Sinai.
The report also identified New Cairo as a risk zone, New Cairo is not far from the New Administrative Capital.
Interestingly, the cost of the first phase of the new administrative capital is LE 200 billion.
I hope the Egyptian government and decision-makers rethink their strategies because it is better to spend LE 300 billion on proper rain drainage system for the sake of the future.
The streets and tunnels were flooded for hours, people stuck in their buses and children in their school buses till from afternoon till the early hours of the morning.
Up till now, there is no official or unofficial estimation for the economic losses resulted on that day or the whole wave of bad weather conditions that followed it.
Egyptians began to ask questions as they should about why we do not have a proper rain drainage system to save the capital from flash floods like what we saw last week.
The answer came from the cabinet spokesperson Nader Assad who said on an Egyptian TV channel the following :
We need LE 200 to 300 billion to build a rain drainage system in Cairo alone and even if I have this money , shall I spend it on a rain drainage network to be used for a day or a two in the year or every couple of years !? It is better to use it in more urgent things like building schools and hospitals.I do not know where to begin but I and many Egyptians believe that this money “if the government has got” is not spent on building things like schools and hospitals.
I know that the initial cost of building the biggest mosque and church in the New Administrative Capital that was inaugurated and only used for official ceremonies is LE 400 million.
I know that Arab Contractors began to construct another huge mosque in the New Administrative Capital which no one lives in currently and has got the biggest Mosque in Egypt with a cost nearly LE 800 Million.
In September 2018, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated the Regional Ring Road.
It was constructed by both the ministry of transportation and the Egyptian armed forces’ engineering authority.
The Regional Ring road is then said to be the biggest and longest in the Middle East according to the official statements.
The officials say the last phase only of constructing that highway cost LE 9 billion.
Part of that Regional Ring road collapsed because of the rain last week, about 135 meters and a depth of 30 meters according to Pro-regime El-Balad News.
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| The new regional ring road after the rain "Sada El-Bald" |
I do not know how much the cost to fix the ring road but I know this incident opens a door to million questions about the safety of roads in Egypt and their construction system.
During the weekend, Egyptians waited for the very rare Medicane rainstorm but thank God it did not but it did hit the country, the Egyptian government would have huge financial problems.
The current Egyptian government thinks LE 300 billion rain drainage system for Great Cairo province “Cover three main big governorates with a population of over 23 million people at the best estimations”.
On Friday Tourism ministry issued its ordered the tourist agencies and companies to suspend tourist trips in all governorates nationwide on Friday because of the expected rain and thunderstorms for 48 hours.
It is a wise decision for the sake of safety for both tourists and locals who work in tourism.
I think there were financial losses because of such decisions and I think those losses would be less if there is a proper rain drainage system.
Needless to say, since 2015 Egyptian officials admitted in clear words that Egypt had entered water poverty especially Ethiopia does not want to back off and listen to the Egyptian demands when it comes to the first filling policies of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Thus, it is wise for the Egyptian government to invest rain drainage system infrastructure that can help in saving rainwater or rain harvesting for future use.
Yes, spend billions of pounds on such project because we have got a climate change going on.
In May 2018, the ministry of irrigation issued a report saying that as climate change worldwide, heavy rainfall will be more common in Egypt and that there are 11 Egyptian governorates that are vulnerable to floods.
Those governorates are Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Asyut, Sohag, Beni Suef, New Valley, and South and North Sinai.
The report also identified New Cairo as a risk zone, New Cairo is not far from the New Administrative Capital.
Interestingly, the cost of the first phase of the new administrative capital is LE 200 billion.
I hope the Egyptian government and decision-makers rethink their strategies because it is better to spend LE 300 billion on proper rain drainage system for the sake of the future.
* This article was originally published here
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