UAE offers Egypt Grant for 10-year Slum Development Project

The UAE will provide Egypt with a grant to aid the development of 10,000 housing units over the course of ten years, Minister of Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements Laila Iskandar told Aswat Masriya website on Sunday.

The project resulting from the yet-to-be signed agreement will commence within the next fiscal year, but the company in charge of implementing the project has not yet been chosen, the minister said.

The project will prioritise slum areas in Upper Egypt’s Minya governorate and Cairo’s Manshiyet Nasser district.

Consecutive Egyptian governments have vowed to develop the informal areas where millions of Egyptians live without basic services such as clean water and sewage. In June 2014, the Ministry of Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements was created, headed by former environment minister Laila Iskandar.

The ministry’s technical support manager said on Sunday that the eradication of slums in Egypt, which make up 40 percent of its urban areas, will cost around LE250 billion.

Source: Ahram Online