Local Services Workshops

The Local Services Workshops series delves into one of the issues that has been raised the most in almost every community workshop TADAMUN has conducted. In those community workshops, we ask Cairenes living in different neighborhoods to tell us about their areas: what they like about them, what they do not and what they want to see changed. Almost always, they identify access to, and provision of, services, as a major cause for concern. This series of workshops probes this particular issue further, with the aim of specifying problem services and also understanding how residents deal with them.

Following a brief introduction of TADAMUN, participants are asked:

• Which local services pose problems for them
• Which local services are most important to them in their daily lives
• What they do to deal with these services-related problems

Arḍ al-LiwāʾLocal Services Workshop

Arḍ al-Liwāʾ is an urbanized village of around 600,000 inhabitants. It is located in al-`Agūza district in al-Gīza Governorate.[1] To find out more about the state of services in this area and its residents’ experiences of local services, TADAMUN conducted this workshop in partnership with the Arḍ al-Liwāʾ Youth Union and with the participation of nine men from the area.

Most Important Services for the Residents

Participants identified a number of issues, which ranged from the lack of health services to the management of solid waste and the state of the roads in the area. Outlined below are the details of the issues which the majority of participants consider important and in need of addressing.

Problems & Practices

Health
There is one health unit in Arḍ al-Liwāʾ, which issues birth and death certificates, and offers vaccinations for children. Apart from these, the unit offers no other services. In light of this, and given that there is also no hospital in the area, participants said that when in need of healthcare, they go to the nearest hospitals. The nearest ones are al-Amal, al-Salām, Būlāq, and al-Muwazafīn. Al-Amal and al-Salām are private, whereas, Būlāq and al-Muwazifīn are public hospitals. But, the service required is often not available in these hospitals and so they often have to make yet another trip to al-Qasr al-`Ainy hospital. In short, if the inhabitants of Arḍ al-Liwāʾ find themselves in need of healthcare, they have no option but to resort to health facilities elsewhere. For all the participants, the lack of health services within their area of residence is a great inconvenience and is considered the most urgent problem to be resolved.

Police Unit and Fire Unit Services

Besides the lack of health services, the services of the police and fire units in the area were another major source of concern. Before the January 25 Revolution the area had no local police unit, but rather the residents were referred from one unit to another. After the revolution, the residents through their efforts helped establish a police unit in the area. But, now, the participants feel that having a police unit in the area is as good as having none at all as all it does is issue fines. In addition to this issue, the participants were also deeply concerned about the lack of emergency services. With near-constant traffic jams at the railroad crossing, in the event of a fire, the truck can only come up to al-Sūdān street and not into Arḍ al-Liwāʾ.

Education

For two of the attendees, education was a concern. Participants explained that school enrolment procedures revolve around paying a bribe, or a “donation”, as the school staff put it. One of the participants, a parent, recounted that when he had gone to enrol his children, he was asked, “How much will you donate to the school?” Since his original residence is Shubra and it is that which is stated on his National ID card, he was obliged to pay EGP 500. This is the amount usually demanded per child. Even if the applicant’s official place of residence is Ard al-Liwāʾ, he/she has to pay to get their child(ren) enrolled, though the amount is usually smaller – probably half that required of those with ID cards stating another place of residence. Besides the mandatory so-called “donation”, parents have to present the school with the child’s birth certificate and a utility bill as proof of residence.

The participants added that there is only one public school in Ard al-Liwāʾ. All other schools in the area are private.

Gas, Water and Electricity

None of these constituted an immediate concern for the participants. According to them, all three are available and they themselves have not faced any serious challenges in accessing the services. When most of them took up residence in Ard al-Liwāʾ, the connections and installations had already been completed: “They came with the house”.

However, since most buildings in the area are built without permits, most utility connections are informal. Those wishing to regularize their electricity connection have not been able to do so. When one of the participants had gone to the company to see how he could get electricity properly and legally, he was instructed to tap into the electricity network, pay the arbitrary “mumārsa” charges, and then file a report against himself for electricity theft. So, in effect, stealing electricity has become part of the procedure.

In comparison to electricity, the procedure to install natural gas is relatively straightforward. When the gas company had started works in the area a couple of years ago, the procedure to apply and have natural gas installed was – in the opinion of some of the participants – greatly facilitated. To get natural gas, the applicant had to provide the company with the rental contract for the apartment and a utility bill. The cost of installation was EGP 1600 and could be paid in instalments. This was the situation at the time. Now, with the company out of the area, those wishing to install natural gas have to pay a total of around EGP 2000.  In the meantime, they have to buy gas cylinders which cost them in the range of EGP 25-35 depending on the floor up to which they are carried.

Overall, the main issue highlighted by the participants with regards to gas, water, and electricity was the cost. One participant who has natural gas said that he used to receive monthly bills of EGP 15 but that now he gets charged EGP 70. When he had gone to complain, he was told that this was because of the heater. He believes, however, that they have raised the charges because he has finished paying the instalments of the installation fee. Participants also complained about the water and electricity bills, the values of which are determined arbitrarily. Those who have meters and those who do not are in the same boat; their bills hardly ever match their consumption. One participant without a meter said that he usually receives water bills of EGP 200, but, that once he received a bill for EGP 600 even though his consumption had not changed in the time

When participants receive such inexplicably high bills, they go to the utility companies to complain, but they are always asked to pay their bill first and then complain. Once, when one of them had gone with a complaint, he was told that it was the meter which was faulty and that he should break it, and then apply and pay for a new meter. Indeed, when it comes to bills, the participants have little option but to comply and pay, but when there were several power outages during the summer of 2014 the participants had managed to solve the problem by going to the electricity converter unit as a group.

Construction

For one of the participants, construction presented a problem because of the building code which restricts the number of floors. Anyone wishing to build more than two to three floors in Ard al-Liwāʾ cannot obtain a building permit and has to be pay bribes. The participant for whom construction was an issue had wanted to apply for a building permit but was instructed by the engineer at the district to build illegally without a permit as it would be hard to obtain one for more than two to three floors. To build up his land, the participant was thus obliged to enter into an agreement with the engineer whereby he had to first pay the engineer EGP 15,000 and then EGP 1,000 for every extra floor built in contravention of the code. The agreement also entailed the issuance of a couple of fines and the filing of police reports.

The participant, however, ended up having to pay much more than agreed because the engineer at the district was changed mid-construction. With the new engineer in charge, the participant faced additional charges. He was also informed by the new engineer that he could apply for the permit, build the permissible floors, and pay a fine for every illegal floor thereafter. This was, of course, a cheaper option of which he was not aware.

Another option which he later discovered was the possibility for paying a sum of EGP 100,000 in exchange for a license to build nine floors.