Thousands of Egyptians have been evicted from their homes without compensation to make way for a bypass to the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most important trade routes.
The inhabitants of two villages in the path of the proposed bypass say that 1,500 homes have already been destroyed, with a total of 5,000 under threat.
The 72.4km bypass, dubbed the “new Suez Canal” by the Cairo government, will allow two-way traffic for a section of the canal’s 193km length, creating room for more ships and potentially more revenue for the cash-strapped nation.
Announced last month, the project is hailed as the solution to the dire economy and unemployment crises, particularly for the communities that line the canal.
However, the villagers of Abtal and Qantara, a few hundred meters east of the channel, say they are the bypass’ first victims.
A week ago, Ibrahim el-Sayed, a 25-year-old farmer with three small children, was evicted from his home by the army, which is supervising the project. The family is now living in a makeshift hut.
“We asked them: where should we go? This is our home, at least compensate us,” Sayed said. “But they responded that the army does not compensate anyone. We told them that we’d have to live in the street, but they answered that this is not our problem.”
Soldiers told evicted villagers they had no right to live on the land as it technically had always belonged to the army. Some of those who argued back were arrested, including Sayed’s brother.
However, villagers say it was the first time anyone had said they should leave since they settled in the area 30 years ago, following the peace deal that saw Israel return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.
The villagers are in an unenviable situation — homeless if they stay silent, and labeled unpatriotic if they speak out against a project and a military institution that are deeply entwined with national identity.
In a telling statement, Sherine al-Haddad, the villagers’ lawyer, criticized their treatment, but avoided blaming the army.
“It’s the army who is taking the action against those people, but it’s not their fault — it’s the fault of the Suez Canal Authority which gave the army maps saying that the area is an empty one,” he said.
The evictions are the latest of several developments that suggest the bypass was not planned as rigorously as it should have been.
The government says the project will triple the canal’s revenues, but international shipping analysts say it is not yet clear whether the canal will have the financial impact that its makers desire.
Irrigation experts also warn that the bypass is being built too close to the original canal, and the new building site has begun to fill with groundwater. This excess water needs to be drained and could cost more than US$1 million a day, said Haitham Mamdouh, head of irrigation, engineering and hydraulics at Alexandria University.
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