The Egyptian government, which intends to redevelop the banks of the Nile for tourist purposes, ordered the destruction of these residential barges, however emblematic of Cairote history.
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Aanguated barge houses on the bank of Kit Kat, Cairo, formed a bucolic setting for lovers and walkers surveying the Corniche of the Nile on the island of Zamalek. The Nobel Prize for Literature Naguib Mahfouz had made it, in 1966, in his drift novel on the Nile, the meeting place for a group of disillusioned intellectuals, around a hooky of Haschich, the hypocrisy of the government and conservatism of Egyptian society under the chairmanship of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Moored for some to the banks of the Nile since the reign of King Fouad i er , in the aftermath of independence (1922), the floating residences of Kit Kat are now doomed to disappear.
Monday, June 27, police ships began to move these vestiges of Cairo of yesteryear and several were destroyed. Four days earlier, the Department of Protection of the Nile of the Ministry of Irrigation had sent an imminent demolition notice and miracular fines to the owners of thirty-two of these picturesque constructions. “They destroyed three on the pretext that they belonged to members of the Muslim Brotherhood [an Islamist opposition movement, classified terrorist by the Egyptian power]. On Monday, they took four barges at least. Fifteen had to be removed on Tuesday “, Testifies Omar Hamilton, a 37 -year -old Egyptian writer. Built in the 1920s in a traditional oriental style, the House of Péniche that his family has had for ten years should be removed in turn, on July 4.
no compensation
“The authorities no longer want a residential occupation of the banks. They want to market this space for tourist purposes”, deplores Mr. Hamilton. On television, on June 24, the head of the Nile Protection Department in Greater Cairo, Ayman Anwar, defended this policy by ensuring that many of these structures have been built without the agreement of the State and he Confirmed that the demolition campaign was the first step in a redevelopment of the banks of the river.
The official indicated that only residential barges would be withdrawn, and not those intended for commercial exploitation or rowing clubs. To the owners wishing to safeguard their property, Mr. Anwar advised to acquire a commercial permit, and specified that if they fail to obtain it, no compensation will be paid to them for the demolition of their barge house.
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