HICtionary Arabic HICtionary HICtionary of Key Habitat Terms


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  • Unsafe Area
  • Following the rockslide that killed at least 199 people in Duwayqa, East Cairo on 8 September 2008, Egypt’s then President Husni Mubarak established the Informal Settlement Development Fund to manage slum-development policy in that national context. The ISDF categorizes as “unsafe” those areas that are considered life threatening due to their location or other conditions. Identifying four grades of “unsafe areas”:

    Grade (1), Life threatening areas: these include houses built in life-threatening locations such as under sliding geological  formations,  in  flood  zones,  or  exposed  to railways accidents.

    Grade  (2),  Areas  of  Unsuitable  Shelter  Conditions: these  include shelters  made  of  make-shift  materials, ruined and structurally unstable buildings, and houses on sites unsuitable for habitation; e.g., dump sites.

    Grade  (3),  Health  risks Areas:  these  include  houses that lack access to clean drinking water or improved sanitation,  those  exposed  to  industrial  pollution,  and those under high voltage cables.

    Grade  (4),  Areas  of  Unstable  Tenure:  these  include houses developed on state land or on the territory of Endowments (Awqaf).

    In March 2010, ISDF Executive Director `Ali el-Faramawy explained [Arabic] that, within the next seven years, the Government of Egypt would prioritize the eviction and removal of “unsafe areas” according to the level of urgency corresponding to the level of risk.