10K feddans of agricultural land encroachments removed in 4 days

CAIRO – 7 October 2018: The Law Enforcement Forces demolished 1 million square meters of building violations and 10,000 feddans of encroachments on agricultural lands across Egyptian governorates in four days.

This comes as part of the directives of the Higher Committee for the Recovery of State Land to restore the state's lands.


The Law Enforcement Forces demolished 1 million square meters of building violations and 10,000 feddans of encroachments on agricultural lands across Egyptian governorates in four days-Press Photo

According to a report issued by the Higher Committee for the Recovery of State Land’s operation room, Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Sharawy requested the governorates to coordinate with the Law Enforcement Forces to combat any encroachment attempts that could happen again.

In January, Egypt’s House of Representatives approved new amendments to the Agriculture Law, imposing tougher penalties on building on arable lands.


The Law Enforcement Forces demolished 1 million square meters of building violations and 10,000 feddans of encroachments on agricultural lands across Egyptian governorates in four days-Press Photo

As per these amendments, building on arable lands is banned and violators could face penalties of up two to five years in prison and a fine ranging between LE 100,000 ($ 5,648) and LE 5 million.

The old articles of the Agriculture Law stipulated that building on lands or changing the arable land to a non-agricultural land was punishable by up to a 6-month imprisonment and a fine ranging between LE 10,000 and LE 50,000.

Encroachments include illegal construction on the Nile banks, unlicensed fish farming and disposal of industrial waste as well as other forms of pollution.

Since January 2015, the ministry has launched a campaign to remove violations detected by the government on the Nile banks.

According to the ministry’s latest data, which was announced in July, a total of 26,322 cases of encroachment on the Nile banks have been removed and since March 2017, a total of 12,425 cases of encroachment were removed.

Egypt’s agricultural lands covered 10 million feddans (one feddan equals about 1.038 acres) in 2015, compared to 9.6 million feddans in 2010, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) noted in a report issued on September 19, 2016.

Since the January 25 revolution in 2011, a total 80,000 feddans were encroached but most cases were upheld, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Spokesperson Hamid Abdel-Dayem previously told Egypt Today.