CAIRO – 28 April 2018: Egypt's official weather agency expects another wave of heavy rains starting Monday, April 30, which will last for three days. However, will officials succeed in dealing with this wave or leave citizens to meet their destiny?
We may not have an answer right now, but the government should take sensible precautionary measures or provide assistance considering the heavy damage caused by the torrential rain that hit several parts of Cairo and Giza on Tuesday and Wednesday.
For his part, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Aty met with the heads of the irrigation, mechanics, electricity, drainage, planning and groundwater services to discuss the water situation and how to handle the expected rains.
Khaled Madin, head of the Irrigation Department, said in a statement on Thursday that work has been completed to clean the floodwaters, canal networks and banks to cope with the floods.
Cairo citizens suffer damage from heavy rains
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail commented on the crisis and apologized to citizens for the effects of the bad weather and the traffic jams that occurred.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Irfan, head of the Administrative Control Authority, personally inspected the New Cairo area on a surprise tour, investigating any violations that occurred and the authorities’ negligence in dealing with the crisis and their failure to control rainwater in the streets.
Rainfall throughout the capital caused some buildings, houses and bridges to collapse. Other areas, such as Suez, Ain Sokhna and Ismailia, were also affected.
Many people have taken to social media and television stations to express their wrath toward governorate officials, emergency departments and drainage facilities, accusing them of failure and calling for interrogations.
Sisi promises the government will intensify efforts to avoid reoccurrences of rain damage
Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi tweeted on Thursday, “I fully understand the state of suffering that hit some Egyptians as a result of the sudden and unusual rainfalls during the last two days; I assure that the state’s authorities will intensify their efforts to prevent the reoccurrence of such incidents.”
أتفهم تماماً حالة المعاناه التى ألمت ببعض المصريين نتيجة الآثار الناجمة عن تساقط الأمطار بشكل مفاجئ وغير معتاد عليه خلال اليومين الماضيين ، وأؤكد أن الدولة بكافة أجهزتها ستكثف من جهودها لتلافى حدوث مثل هذه الأثار مرة أخرى.
Osama Al-Zaher, head of the Central Department of the Irrigation Minister's Office, said preliminary estimates show that 60 million cubic meters of water fell as a result of the rains.
Zaher added during a phone call with DMC channel on Thursday that the Nile River and canals received about 25 million cubic meters of rainwater, while the underground reservoirs also received a lot of water.
He mentioned that many ground reservoirs were formed over the past two years, reaching 500 tanks, each with a capacity of 1,000 cubic meters.
CAIRO - 26 April 2018: Even though the Egyptian Meteorological Authority has warned of unstable weather from the beginning of this week, officials have failed to take sensible precautionary measures or provide assistance after torrential rain hit several parts of Cairo and Giza hard on Tuesday and Wednesday, causing heavy damage.
MP Mohammed al-Husseini, deputy of Parliament’s Local Administration Committee, said that the committee has a keen interest in issuing the local administration law as soon as possible, because the presence of local councils is necessary and the elections must be completed to allow solving problems facing the community.
Husseini added that the new cities around Cairo prove that there are real problems with the technical designs of water banks, which confirms a serious problem with the administrative authorities, as there have been billions paid for the infrastructure without any oversight.
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