Urban sprawl on agricultural land
p. 72-73
Texte intégral
11,736 hectares per annum | 1961 | 83% | 2017 |
Average annual loss of agricultural land in Egypt | First law protecting agricultural land | Percentage of Cairo’s informal housing on fertile land | Land recovery campaign |
Sources: Attia, 2011; Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction, 1977; Sims, 2010 |
1As a result of demographic growth and in response to a need for housing as much as any movement to invest in real estate, urban expansion is threatening the already rare arable lands, and raising the threat of their imminent disappearance despite protective legislation that has been continually strengthened over the years. Law no. 63 of 1961 was modified in 1984 and 1985 (Art. 152 and 156), and penalties (fines and imprisonment) were reinforced in 2018 (Law no. 7).
The diversity and extent of informal housing
2Almost two thirds of Cairenes live in “informal” housing (D. Sims), also qualified as substandard housing. This covers a number of different types, including buildings of several storeys (ashwaiyyat*, “haphazard”), rooftop dwellings, and the occupation of mausoleums or vaults in cemeteries where more than two million people live.
3New construction is most often situated on private plots of generally agricultural land, and thus the land use is informally changed. Construction is seldom on sites belonging to the State due to uncertain security of tenure
4Informal housing is the norm for lower income citizens who are financially unable to buy property in the State-planned neighbourhoods. Agnès Deboulet has written of “districts of popular origin”. The inadequacy of public housing policy in conjunction with the needs of the lower-income populace explain the relative tolerance exhibited by the authorities towards informal building, the spread of which is fostered by corruption. Building operations are unobtrusive, often hidden behind fences or roadside hoardings, most often at night, on Fridays or holidays. During the period of uprising and unrest from 2011 to 2013, this form of building intensified taking advantage of the political instability and the loosening of official control. The central districts of Cairo witnessed buildings being erected in courtyards and any available gaps in the built environment that had hitherto been vacant, while the rate of construction on cultivable land on the edges of the city accelerated.
Agricultural land eaten by urbanisation
5Urban expansion has encroached upon agricultural properties that are divided into lots of 100 to 300 metres long by 6 to 17 metres wide, each surrounded by irrigation canals. These latter are filled in and transformed into alleys and streets creating a regular road network. The farmers and the landowners subdivide their property in collaboration with local real estate agents, whose involvement helps bypass governmental restrictions and limits bureaucratic procedures. One feddan is usually divided into and sold as 24 equal lots, the surface of the lots varies between 40 and 150 m2.
6Changing agricultural land into housing can generate a profit of 200% and thus low-income farmers, landowners on the urban fringes, and urbanised peasants have been encouraged to sell their plots, some of which are less than a qirat (175m2). In order to obtain a construction permit the land must be barren, which has sometimes led to the removal of the organic surface layer of soil to be sold to other farmers.
7Buyers are rural migrants or low-income city-dwellers from the central districts who purchase a finished unit or engage a local developer to build the house. The main sources of financing are savings, remittances, collective pooling within the extended family, and personal loans.
8The construction process is rapid: the framework structure is reinforced concrete (poured directly on site), the walls are brick infill, and the building increases by a storey per month. High-rises are built by speculative developers and/or groups of small-scale investors. The presence of concrete pillars on the top floor is in anticipation of additional storeys in the future: the buyer might thus ask a developer to construct a single storey building in which one room is occupied by the purchaser and the others are rented by other occupants. Having saved up the necessary money over eight to ten years, a floor might be added, followed by another, etc. following a gradual self-building process.
Coveted agricultural islands
9The farming islands of Warraq, Dahab and Qursaya, located in the very heart of the capital, are an illustration of both the current real estate pressure and the ambivalent attitude of the State. Conflict broke out in 2005 between island inhabitants and the authorities, which want to use the land for high quality residential projects and leisure developments (Cairo 2050 project, launched in 2008 by the GOPP). In 2017, President Sisi turned to the protection of the environment under the threat of informal housing as an excuse for reclaiming the islands. A lack of consultation with the residents led to violent clashes on Warraq Island, which was targeted for a bridge to connect Shubra with the ring road that encircles Cairo.
Auteur
Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, director of MAS Urban Project at ETHZ and visiting professor at Berlin TU
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