The Ministry of Housing will create a schedule in the next few days to implement the delayed water and sanitation projects in a number of governorates, as part of the government’s efforts to raise the efficiency of infrastructure.
Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly said during the Council of Governors meeting Saturday that the water and sanitation projects in the 13 governorates were delayed because the insufficient budget over the past few years. Moreover, another reason behind the delay was the insolvency of some of the companies entrusted to implement these projects.
A number of drinking water and sanitation projects faltered in the past but the damages caused by the heavy rainfall in a number of governments sped up the process of implementing these projects and evaluating what has been completed so far.
According to Madbouly, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail demanded prioritising the completion of the projects that have already begun and have a high process speed to provide citizens with tangible results for these public investments.
The Council of Governors agreed to the Ministry of Housing’s suggestion to dedicate 10% of the implemented units in the Social Housing Project as shelters for emergencies, such as victims of earthquakes, floods, and fires.
According to a cabinet statement, the shelter units are dedicated to the cases that do not meet the requirements of social housing. The governorates would pay the price of the dedicated units to the Social Housing Fund through instalments over three years to be able to continue its role in establishing housing units to low-income individuals.
Madbouly said the ministry received demands from a number of governorates to dedicate a percentage of social housing units to unsafe slums, urgent shelter, and ramshackle buildings. The ministry studied the percentage suggested to be given to such cases.
The ministry concluded that providing housing units to low-income families and emergency cases is among the governorate specialisations and for cases of evacuating buildings according to administrative decisions issued for performing maintenance or demolishing the building.
Until 2007, establishing low-cost housing units and units for urgent cases funded by the Housing Funds fell under the governorates’ jurisdiction, through facilitated loans from the National Investment Bank, which the Ministry of Planning designates. However with the beginning of the National Housing Project, the facilitated loans were suspended and consequently implementation was suspended on the housing dedicated to the cases that require shelter.
With the launch of the Social Housing Project, the Social Housing Fund became the funding authority for housing units, which is why the ministry found that it is appropriate to dedicate a percentage of these units to the cases mentioned.
