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 citys 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.

Hossni Elshorafa And Antonio AriaS ESSAY

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

Hossni Elshorafa And Antonio AriaS ESSAY

mothers and future mothers, are illiterate. Egypts 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

Hossni Elshorafa And Antonio AriaS ESSAY

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. Egypts

Hossni Elshorafa And Antonio AriaS ESSAY

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 thats 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 citys population resides in informal settlements. But the

Hossni Elshorafa And Antonio AriaS ESSAY

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

Hossni Elshorafa And Antonio AriaS ESSAY

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 thats 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 bacterias 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 isnt
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

Hossni Elshorafa And Antonio AriaS ESSAY

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