What is an informal area?
Informal areas are called informal because they develop in absence of government planning processes. In some cases, buildings and neighbourhoods are built illegally on agricultural land that is not officially assigned for housing and construction. Such ad hoc constructions often disregard government regulations concerning the size of allotments and standards of construction.1 In some cases, neighbourhoods are erected on former government desert land, spreading out from a nucleus that was initially authorised for development. Manshiet Nasser for example developed around a core of garbage collectors relocated there by the government in the 1960s. Ezbet el-Haggana, in turn, was established as a settlement for the families of soldiers serving at a nearby military base. Thus, existing neighbourhoods expand due to the illegal squatting and the occupation of surrounding government land perceived as ‘vacant’.
What do informal areas look like?
Informal areas in Egypt differ from the make-shift huts of squatter settlements in the urban centres of many other developing countries. Typical informal housing structures in Egypt are made with solid, permanent materials on private land and are multiple storeys high. Partly as a result of housing structures, evictions and demolitions of informal areas by Government authorities are very rare and have occurred mainly where informal land was required for national public infrastructure and road construction, or in cases of illegal squatting on government land. In the oldest and most consolidated informal areas of Greater Cairo, high levels of perceived tenure security allow the residents to invest in housing improvements, which have significantly increase the overall infrastructure quality of the area. In some areas, the Government is even considering a process of official registration of these areas.
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1 El Kadi, G., 1987: L’articulation de deux circuits de gestion foncière au Caire, Peuples Méditerranéens, 41-42, 167-179. El Kadi, G., 1987: L’urbanisation spontanée de Caire. Urbama, Fascicule de Recherche no. 18.
What is an informal area?What do informal areas look like?
Informal areas in Egypt differ from the make-shift huts of squatter settlements in the urban centres of many other developing countries. Typical informal housing structures in Egypt are made with solid, permanent materials on private land and are multiple storeys high. Partly as a result of housing structures, evictions and demolitions of informal areas by Government authorities are very rare and have occurred mainly where informal land was required for national public infrastructure and road construction, or in cases of illegal squatting on government land. In the oldest and most consolidated informal areas of Greater Cairo, high levels of perceived tenure security allow the residents to invest in housing improvements, which have significantly increase the overall infrastructure quality of the area. In some areas, the Government is even considering a process of official registration of these areas.
(1) El Kadi, G., 1987: L’articulation de deux circuits de gestion foncière au Caire, Peuples Méditerranéens, 41-42, 167-179.
El Kadi, G., 1987: L’urbanisation spontanée de Caire. Urbama, Fascicule de Recherche no. 18.
Informal areas are called informal because they develop in absence of government planning processes. In some cases, buildings and neighbourhoods are built illegally on agricultural land that is not officially assigned for housing and construction. Such ad hoc constructions often disregard government regulations concerning the size of allotments and standards of construction (1). In some cases, neighbourhoods are erected on former government desert land, spreading out from a nucleus that was initially authorised for development. Manshiet Nasser for example developed around a core of garbage collectors relocated there by the government in the 1960s. Ezbet el-Haggana, in turn, was established as a settlement for the families of soldiers serving at a nearby military base. Thus, existing neighbourhoods expand due to the illegal squatting and the occupation of surrounding government land perceived as ‘vacant’.
