Over the past fifty years, the population of Cairo has exploded from about two million people in 1952 to nearly twenty million today. This dramatic one thousand percent increase in the population of the city has had a large effect on the life in Cairo, and has created a number challenges that Cairo must meet in order to face the future.

1) The old city of Cairo has been supplanted with modern apartment buildings amidst the medieval construction, as can be seen in this view from the Mosque of Ibn Tulun.

A rise in population means that there are more people, and all of these people need to have places to live. The city grew in three different directions: outward, upward, and inward.

The inward development of the city has involved taking older structures and subdividing them into smaller units, so that more people can live there, and the addition of high-rise buildings next to or in place of the smaller, older dwellings.

Another recent development that is rather unique has been the so-called "cities of the dead." These are the vast cemeteries originally built by the Mamluks in the middle ages. The Mamluk tombs were often built with small dwellings to accommodate relatives or caretakers. The tombs themselves were mausoleums, fully enclosed structures. These structures were quickly adopted by the immigrants to Cairo, who found a shortage of affordable housing. This shortage resulted from the fact that the newly developed sections of the city were built for middle class families, and could not be afforded by the poor immigrants from the countryside. As a result, many took up residence in the cities of the dead, since the structures provided basic needs. Ironically, the quality of life in the cities of the dead is somewhat higher than in other areas of Cairo, since the population is much less dense due to the restrictions on development of a cemetery area. In recent decades, basic services such as electricity and water, schools and mosques have been expanded into the cities of the dead, raising the standard of living.

2) The Southern Cemetary, one of the Mamluk era cemetaries that has become home to nearly one million people since the 1952 revolution.

3) The Northern Cemetary, with a closer view of the mausoleum structures that have become single family dwellings.

The housing situation has encountered a very interesting problem, also unique to Egypt. Shortly after the revolution of 1952, Nasser froze rent payments in most of Cairo to prevent certain sectors of the city from being too expensive for the masses. Essentially, this kept rents from ever rising. However, this also meant that rent could not be adjusted for cost-of-living increases. At the time, the Egyptian pound was tied to the British pound sterling, which was worth about 5 or 6 dollars (a lot of money in those days). However, by the 1980s, the U.S. dollar was worth around 3 or 4 Egyptian pounds, which was a significant decrease. There are still apartments in Cairo where the rent due is no more than about five or ten pounds per month - a sum so insignificant that many landlords do not even bother to collect rent. The result of this is that the common areas of many apartment buildings, the elevators, lobby and stairways, have fallen into disrepair because the landlords cannot afford to maintain them. Stories are common about elevators that have not worked since the 1960s, hallways that are not lit because the bulbs burned out in the 1970s and have never been replaced, rodent and roach infestations that keep coming back. In the newer sections of the city, rent is usually much higher, and the living accommodations are consequently much nicer. In recent decades, there have been steps taken to correct the situation: the rent prices can be reset if the tenant dies, for example, and wishes to pass the apartment on as an inheritance.

The challenges that Cairo faces are not just limited to overcrowding. In the next section, we will examine environmental, social and health problems that have come about as the result of Cairo's rapid growth in the last century.

4) The Nile river, which bisects Cairo into two halves, is the primary source for the city's water supply.

Another basic service that has suffered with the growth of the city is that of the water supply. Cairo draws all of its water from the Nile, which is then purified and pumped into pipes for distribution all over the city. However, expansion of the city has put a large strain on the water supply, which has in some cases led to low water pressure, essentially rendering the supply useless. Many of the pipes that carry drinking water are either made of or contain a significant amount of lead. Additionally, many of the pipes that carry drinking water run right next to the lines that carry raw sewage, and leaks are a constant problem in the aging infrastructure. One final factor that has led to significant problems involves the sewage system: the daily water usage far exceeds the capacity of the sewage system. This leads to standing pools of raw sewage in the streets and in the underground water table, as well as leaks into the Nile and other sources of clean water.

Other service sectors have found different ways of coping with the problems. The telecommunications sector has been plagued with problems for years. While telephone service is extended to the newer sections of the city the average wait for a new telephone line in the old sections of Cairo is twenty years. This problem is being taken care of by technology; the widespread availability of cellular telephones means that telephone service is finally expanding into areas of the city that have never had it. A new innovation is housewives setting themselves up in business as "phone women," who invest in a cellular telephone, and then rent the phone out to friends and neighbors for a fee, repaying the investment and making a small profit. The expansion of the Internet has also transformed Egypt's telecommunications sector, since most Internet companies are privately owned and are working for the first time to modernize, privatize and expand phone lines.

5) There are huge disparities in the telecommunications sector in Egypt, with old infrastructure in dire need of updating and replacement.

6) Basic commodities, such as food, are sold through small vendors on the street, such as this one, in grocery stores, or through government owned stores. The government owned stores sell commodities that are subsidized.

Other aspects of Cairo economic life effected by its huge population growth involve basic commodities such as bread and kerosene, which many Egyptians use to heat portable stoves since electricity and gas lines do not extend into all areas of the city. Another of Nasser's policies involved the provision of bread to the masses at reasonable prices, which, again, were frozen shortly after the revolution. When inflation set in, it was no longer possible for those who provided these commodities to make a profit, since they were priced well below the cost of manufacturing them. The government began to subsidize the production and sale of these items, which became a burdensome and money-losing venture. In the 1970s, under pressure from western agencies like the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development, President Sadat decreed that such commodities would be reset to market value and that the government subsidy would end. This caused the prices of these basic commodities to rise drastically, for example the cost of bread rose to over ten times what it had been. Fierce rioting broke out all over Egypt, and Sadat was forced to reverse his policy. President Mubarak has taken a gentler approach, introducing several different kinds of bread, for example, of different qualities. Bread can still be purchased at a rock bottom price, for example, but it is of the lowest quality, so those who can afford it will purchase a higher quality bread at a higher price.

Another problem usually perceived in the West as serious is that of Islamic fundamentalism. Egypt is a predominately Muslim country (around 90% of the population), and there is occasional friction between the secular government and groups who want Egypt to be an Islamic republic. Although there are occasional acts of violence, Islamic fundamentalism does not generally concern the population of the country. The groups which work violently are usually splinter groups, who do not have the support of the mainstream Islamist forces.

The mosque has traditionally been the center of the Muslim community since the beginnings of Islam. At the mosque, people from all social classes and ethnic backgrounds gather to pray and to celebrate holidays. The mosque is the agency that collects alms from those who can afford to give, and distributes aid to the poor. In Egypt, these services are not regulated by the government, although the government attempts to provide such services to the population as well. The difference, however, is that the mosque has a much smaller area to work with, and can work much more efficiently than the government. Hence, in times of crisis, the mosques and Islamic groups can often serve the needs of the local population quicker than the government. Churches also provide similar functions to the Christian population.

7) Concern about the perceived threat of Islamist groups has prompted the Egyptian government to reassure tourists that any such threat is minimal.

The government sometimes sees these actions as threatening competition. In 1992, an earthquake severely damaged parts of Cairo. The government did not have relief supplies immediately available. However, the army was ordered into the worst effected areas of the city to prevent other groups from providing aid to victims. Despite the fact that local Islamic and Christian groups could have immediately come to the aid of the victims, the people were forced to wait for days until the government's relief effort was ready. This was supposedly done to keep the loyalties of the people with the government, but only served to alienate and enrage parts of the population.

8) The Zebulleen at work, sorting and recycling refuse, which benefits them economically, as well as the city environmentally.

The increase in the population of Cairo and the subsequent environmental problems have led to severe health problems among the population.

One interesting response to the problem of garbage has been the zebulleen. The zebulleen are a group of people who collect, sort, and recycle garbage. Originally, the project was designed to bring money to a group of unemployed poor people: the plan was to collect money from manufacturers by returning used goods in exchange for a deposit. However, as the project became more widespread, the Egyptian government and international organizations began supporting the zebulleen's efforts, which have received notice at major conferences on the environment.

9) A boy and his father wearing dust masks to block out polluted air. Cairo has some of the most polluted air of any city in the world.

What is being done about these problems?

10) These factories at Helwan are part of the source of Cairo's pollution. Scrubbers that clean the exhaust before it is released are being installed in factories throughout Egypt to cut down on the amount of pollutants in the atmosphere.

Although Cairo has a long way to go before many of these problems are solved, the situation is slowly improving. New water and sewer lines are being laid into areas of the city not served, and the old pipes are slowly being replaced. A new ring road is being designed that will carry traffic not destined for Cairo around the city, easing congestion on the roads and reducing the amount of pollutant-causing traffic on the streets. The second line of Cairo's metro system has been opened, and a third is planned, which will reduce the amount of automobile traffic. New automobiles have pollutant reducing equipment, such as catalytic converters, that will further bring the number of pollutants in the atmosphere down. Unleaded gasoline has also recently been introduced into Egypt, which will further reduce the amount of pollutants.

Photography Credits:
Photographs 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10: Copyright by Thomas Hartwell
Photographs 1, 2, 4, 7: Copyright 1995 by Christopher Rose