Life in Eshash el-Sudan

People there were stressed and angry, that’s what struck me most about this slum in the Dokki neighbourhood of Giza, south of Cairo.

There was rubbish everywhere and the smell was terrible. Located near a busy street, the noise was intense and constant.

Animals such as chicken or goats are usually kept in an eshash – a coop or pen. I saw 12 people living in a shack of about 3 square metres. There was very little space between each makeshift home.

The slum dwellers, some of whom have called this settlement near Sudan Street home for 50 years, say there are not enough apartments built nearby to rehouse them.

Some 145 housing units are being built to rehouse the residents of this slum, local media have quoted General Alaa Haras, the deputy governor of Giza, as saying.

The slum’s residents eke out a living by disposing of rubbish or, in some cases, baking bread. Schooling is too expensive for most of their children, who play with salvaged rubbish amid shacks made of discarded wood and leather.

Life is very tough here.

One man offered me tea but apologised because no water was available. Back in the countryside, where he came from, that would have been possible, he told me.

There is only one tap for the whole slum settlement, and the supply is very erratic. It can take an hour to get water, one drip at a time. It pained me to see bedraggled, dirty children go in search of water, carrying whatever bit of plastic they could find as a container.

Many people told me they could only wash once every week or two. The priority was to use water for cooking and drinking, they said.

"No one cares about us,” I heard residents of Eshash el-Sudan say over and over again.

(reuters.com)