I bumped yesterday into an acquaintance who lives in El-Nahda neighborhood, one of the low-income areas, east of Cairo, on the road to Belbeis, neighboring industrial zones in Obour City.
The man was bitterly complaining.
“Drinking water, specially during the summer, is not always available. I’ve been living in this place for eight years, and it’s always been bad. But since last year it became totally unbearable.
“We get water for four hours a day usually. Then one day yes, the other day no. And then, it disappears for a week. I open the tap, and there is nothing coming down.
“Last summer the women in the neighborhood assembled, and demonstrated in front of the municipality. And as you know, our women are, excuse me, baladi women… so they were using slurs and foul language against the municipality officials. State Security came. It was a big fuss. But the women stayed on. I can’t remember which day it was. It was the beginning of the summer. But what I remember is that the following day water was running through our pipes again.
“Two weeks ago, we did not have water, then it came back last Saturday, only to be cut again on the following day. Last Tuesday the women assembled again. Some men were present too, but most were women. The municipality promised us they’ll solve the problem. On the following day, they got us fanatees (water transported in metal containers, usually for irrigation)! Man, try to drink that water. It’s even too dirty to wash your clothes in it.
“We are dreaming of water. I want some water! God, it’s water that I’m talking about here. I’m not talking about even getting a bigger space for me, my wife and three children. No one knows where the water is going. We hear rumors. Some say the investors in Obour City made a deal with someone or bribed the municipality engineers to divert our water pipes to serve the Obour factories instead of our neighborhood.”
Finally, dear readers, guess where the Qale’t el-Kabsh slum residents are being moved to? Yep, the govt is resettling the fire victims to El-Nahda to keep dreaming of water.