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 probes into 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:
Al-Marg is an impoverished area north-east of Cairo, which, like many other areas in the city, has long suffered state neglect. 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 Rābṭit Shabāb al-Marg [al-Marg Youth Association] and with the participation of fourteen women from the area.
Participants identified the following services as being the most important to their day-to-day lives:
According to the residents, each of these services suffer from problems that makes it very difficult for them to fulfill their needs. In the following section, we detail precisely why participants consider the aforementioned services problematic and what they do to address the lack or malfunction of these services.
Education
Education unequivocally topped the participants’ list of concerns. For the participants, school availability is not so much the problem as is the quality and the cost of education. Al-Marg contains schools for all three educational stages; participants named three primary schools, one preparatory school and one secondary school. Their concerns mainly revolve around the school environment, pupil density, curricula difficulty, teaching quality and overall costs of education. The participants, all of whom were mothers with children aged 0 to 15, complained about how unclean and poorly maintained the school buildings are, how crowded the classrooms are, and how the children hardly learn anything. By these mothers’ accounts, the children do not even learn how to read and write. The curricula, they noted, are difficult, and the teaching methods in use are ineffective. In addition to all these problems, the so-called “public” education their children are receiving is anything but free. Teachers schedule in place of regular classes extra classes – for which there is a charge – and pressure pupils into taking private lessons, threatening them with failure if they refuse. The costs of these additional lessons are not the only ones that parents have to factor in; there are also mandatory bribes.
Participants identified two main purposes for paying bribes: school enrollment and academic year completion. One of the participants said that everyone is well aware that submitting the required papers –a birth certificate, three pictures and an electricity bill- does not suffice to get the child into the school; a sum has to be paid under the table, so to speak. Sometimes, the parents are told that they have to make this payment because they live far away from the school, or because there are no more places. Reason or not, they will have to pay. The only thing that they can do is to try to negotiate (or fight) to lower the requested amount. A relative of one participant was made to pay EGP 300, while the participant herself, only paid EGP 100, after having made a scene, of course.
Getting the child into the school is only the beginning; to ensure that their children pass the year, parents have to continue bribing the teacher, directly, or through enrolling their children into their extra classes and private lessons. At one of the three primary schools in the area parents get told which subjects their children need to re-sit and the price (read: bribe) to pass.
Finally, it is important to mention that although issues of quality and cost dominated the discussion on education, participants did also express the need for more “basic education” schools.
Water
In recounting their views and experiences of this service, participants highlighted three main issues: water supply, quality, and cost. The water cuts frequently and without prior notice, which greatly inconveniences the women. Besides the supply issue, the women, almost unanimously, complained about the poor quality of drinking water; they said that it tends to have an odd color, taste, or smell about it. Out of precaution, they try to better its quality, either by fitting the tap with a filter, or by using traditional filtering methods. Or, they just drink it as it is, and hope that they do not fall ill. They also took issue with the costs they bear in return for a less than adequate service. Their bills are not always calculated regularly and on time. Participants mentioned that intervals between meter readings may well be months-long. Such long intervals push the residents into the higher consumption stratum and so they end up receiving very high bills, which are often disproportionate to their perceived consumption. Many of the women present at the workshop complained of having received such bills (after months of having nobody come to take the meter reading).
Upon their receipt of high bills, the participants said that they usually go to the water company to complain. However, they cannot simply present their complaint and demand an explanation for what they consider an unfair charge; they are made to pay the bill first. “Pay first and then complain” is the company’s unofficial policy according to participants. After paying the bill, the next two bills that they receive are lower so as to compensate for that paid at the time of complaint. Nevertheless, this experience is ultimately all very short-lived as the participants often find themselves with another grossly huge water bill.
Electricity
Problems related to this service culminate in supply, cost and regularization. Again as with water, power outages are frequent and the bills can be quite high, especially when they are not calculated using the meter reading. According to participants, the bill collector takes no note of the meter and tends to write down a reading of his choice. The avenues available here to residents are similar to those available to them when the water service is in question. If they wish to complain, they pay the electricity company a visit and pay their bill. As for when the electricity cuts, they call the company, but are left without a response.
A further problem is regularization, which concerns those who are not officially on the electric grid covering al-Marg and are tapping illegally into it. The procedures to formally apply for electricity and obtain a legal connection are, in the judgment of the participants, simple. Indeed, many have applied but are still without meters and a legal connection. The problem here emanates not from the residents, but from the company, which, reportedly, does not make sure that someone goes to install the meter or takes a long time to do. Finally, another significant point made by the participants was that those currently tapping into the grid illegally need only pay the bill collector a bribe when he comes.
Gas
The area is, by and large, lacking in the necessary infrastructure; only a small portion of the area has been serviced. According to the workshop attendees, there have long been plans to supply the area with natural gas, but these remain largely unimplemented, under the pretext that the area has not become sufficiently urbanized. The lack of this service leaves residents at the mercy of gas cylinder merchants, who can charge as much as EGP 70 per cylinder even though the official price is EGP 10. Residents have the option of buying cylinders from the gas company at EGP 15, but the transportation of the cylinder may pose a difficulty, depending on where the company’s distribution truck stops in the area.
Health
When asked about health facilities in the area, participants named the hospital of “al-Yawm al-Wāḥid” and three health units: “al-Birka”, “al-Mu‘asasa” and “al-Andalus”. Interestingly, there was a debate during the workshop on whether “al-Yawm al-Wāḥid” is a public hospital or not. Some identified it, without hesitation, as a private facility, though it is in fact a public hospital. They were under such an impression because the services there are quite expensive and comparable to private hospitals. Participants mentioned a number of cases where, for example, the hospital refused to admit seriously ill/injured people without prior payment, or where people were asked to undergo (costly) scans only to be told that they were fine.
As for the health units in the area, their availability often proves futile. Participants have many a time been turned away with the phrase: “No Examinations Today!” Furthermore, the available health units do not together cover all aspects of health; none offer ophthalmological and ear, nose and throat care, for example.
In light of the inaccessibility of public healthcare and its limitedness, participants usually turn to private clinics such as those run by mosques.
Waste Collection
People living in the area have to dispose of their garbage themselves. The women said that they have to walk long distances to reach the nearest bin. Some locals, of course, just throw their garbage anywhere. Consequently, the streets often overflow with litter. It is only when an official is passing through the area that the municipality assumes its responsibility and cleans the streets. The only efforts to address the problem have been made by a non-governmental initiative, which supplies people with garbage bags and collects the bags on a regular basis in exchange for a small monthly fee of EGP 10.
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