Slum Formation: A Benefit or Burden?
A video tackling the reason why Manshiyat Naser has become a shelter to its residents.
“My family moved from the countryside because it was hard to sustain our livelihood and our well-being there. My father was unable to feed or educate me or my siblings,” said Horreya Abdelwahab, a resident of Manshiyat Naser, one of Cairo’s slums, for 30 years.
Abdelwahab’s typical struggle represents the major reason why slums have started to form in the first place.
Slums are the districts formed on the outskirts of major cities during industrialization. They are globally referred to as “housing by the people”.
Inside one of Manshiyat Naser's rooms where six siblings live together.
They evolved as a result of workers’ commuting back and forth to the cities from rural areas. The workers formed these informal settlements, since they needed a closer place to their workplaces.
This was especially prominent in Egypt during President Gamal Abdel Nasser's time as professor Tamer El Gindi, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo (AUC), explained. During Nasser’s time, people were permitted to resort to low cost houses, especially after the 1967 war.
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Among these slums is Manshiyat Naser, an almost six-square kilometer slum in Cairo housing around 263 thousand individuals. The slum area has been formed for approximately 70 years.
As time elapsed, slums developed and became more officially integrated into the Egyptian community.
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“Second generation people living in slums are quite different from their parents and grandparents, and this has had a positive effect on the residents of the slums,” said El Gindi.
From Behind Open Doors' Instagram page, a photo from Manshiyat Naser's alleys.
El Gindi explained that slum formation has both its negative and positive aspects. Although they contribute to the informal economy of the country, they are regarded negatively by some for their poorly structured buildings and poor sanitation that shape a hazard for the rest of society.
“Many people would argue that they do not want these societies because the structure of the buildings, the sewage system, and the amount of garbage in the streets due to lack of government services, has its effect whether economically, socially or environmentally,” added El Gindi.
However, he discussed that slum dwellers might view their district differently because their livelihood depends on it.
Markets: One Reason to Stay
Another reason behind the persistence of slum formation in Egypt is the internal markets that both makes the residents more attached to the place and attract outsiders for profit.
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Click on the red areas of the map to view different slum areas in Cairo.
A map showing the population of each informal settlement.
Source: Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt (web).
Slums as Shelters
Nowadays, slums became not only a physical shelter, but also independent communities that attract outsiders.
“I migrated from Faiyum a month ago to work in Manshiyat Naser,” said Amr Khairy, a salesperson in one of Manshiyat Naser’s shops.
Poverty and inequality also contributed to slums’ formation, according to Mike Davis in his book Planet of Slums.
With the increasing income gap within countries, people sought the informal settlements as a resort.
The globalization phenomenon and people’s awareness of this income gap, made them migrate to the cities in the hope of finding better living conditions.
“It is called an unplanned area, where there may be stable buildings but poor street infrastructure and insufficient services,” explained Hani Younis, the Ministry of Housing media consultant.
Younis added that there is a difference between slums that are usually life-threatening in nature, and these other unplanned areas.
The Informal Settlements Development Fund (ISDF) classifies slum districts based on their safety. Grade (1) areas are the most threatening and grade (2) areas have unsuitable shelter conditions with unstable structured buildings. Grade (3) areas are those that encounter health risks while grade (4) areas developed on state lands.