Cairo -
The Egyptian government announced its acquisition of 71% of the lands of Al-Warraq Island, southwest of the capital (Cairo), as part of a scheme to own all the lands of the country's large Nile islands.
The Cabinet confirmed, in an official statement issued last Monday, that the acquired lands became the property of the Urban Communities Authority, which is the official body that will undertake the development plan for Warraq Island.
The Minister of Housing, Assem Al-Jazzar, explained that the development plan includes, in the urgent stage, the construction of 94 residential towers, in addition to the implementation of a number of services such as schools, medical units, youth centers, as well as commercial, service and entertainment centers.
Since 2017, the Egyptian authorities have been trying to expropriate Al-Warraq lands from their residents, claiming that they are state property, which residents have met with repeated protests and lawsuits against the Prime Minister and the Minister of Housing.
Warraq Trade Center
Two weeks ago, the State Information Service (governmental) published, through its official account on the social networking site, pictures of the development plan for Al-Warraq Island, for which a new name was chosen, "Horus City".
The SIS stated that the island will turn into a global trade center comparable to the most prominent trade centers in the world, with a total project cost of 17.5 billion pounds (dollars = 19.14), while annual revenues amount to 20.422 billion pounds for a period of 25 years.
The Warraq development plan is scheduled to include:
8 investment areas, a commercial area, a distinct and investment housing area, in addition to a central park, a green area, a "marina" (1) and (2), a tourist riverfront, a cultural area, and a tourist corniche.
Horus Gardens, which includes an entertainment walkway, a sports walkway, commercial centers, and a museum of modern architecture.
Marina Horus includes a recreational lake and around it commercial activities, and a marina for boats.
Marina Horus towers and contains hotels, business centers and commercial centers, and represents 12 gatherings with a construction rate of 20% of the total allocated area.
Horus Residential Village is divided into 70 acres for housing projects, and 130 acres for the resettlement of residents who would prefer to stay on the island.
The iconic Horus Tower includes a conference hall, 7-star hotels, a business district, and a helipad.
Who is in charge of development?
Although the Egyptian government did not announce the name of the engineering company that will undertake the Warraq development project, the "cube consultants" engineering consultancy - based in Cairo - published on its official website sketches dating back to 2015 for the development of the island;
It matches the plan announced by the State Information Service.
The company explained that the Al-Warraq development project aims to create open public areas as a recreational and cultural outlet, raise the quality of life for the residents of the area, and create investment, tourist and entertainment attractions and job opportunities for citizens, provided that the island is a symbolic environmentally friendly sign that expresses the modernity of the capital.
In July 2017, media reports stated that the Dubai-based engineering company, RSB, had put forward on its official website a proposed design for the development of Warraq Island.
The company stated that it was no longer related to the project after it completed the design "at the request of one of its customers", and did not provide any details about the customer's identity or nationality.
The largest of the islands
Warraq Island is the largest of the Nile islands in Egypt, with an area of about 1,600 acres.
There is no accurate count of its population, but local media said - 5 years ago - that it is about 60,000 citizens, most of whom depend on agriculture and fishing for their livelihood.
Al-Warraq Island is located in the heart of the Nile, and there is no way to connect it by land except for small boats, in addition to the "ferry", which is a larger boat that can accommodate a larger number of passengers.
In 1998, a government decision was issued declaring 188 Nile islands natural reserves, including Al-Warraq, and according to the decision the island was subjected to environmental management by the concerned government agencies.
In 2010, a committee of the Ministers of Housing, Environment and Irrigation was formed to study the environmental conditions of the island, with the aim of developing a plan for environmental correction there.
In 2017, a decision was issued by the Prime Minister to exclude 17 islands from the decision of nature reserves and to turn Al-Warraq into an investment area, and in 2018 a decision was issued to establish a new urban community on the lands of Al-Warraq Island.
The fate of the people
In accordance with government decisions regarding the development of Al-Warraq, police and army forces carried out successive campaigns to demolish the homes of the island's residents and burn their agricultural crops because of what they said was an attack on state property.
On the other hand, the residents of "Al-Warraq" demonstrated against their expulsion from their land, and clashes took place between them and the security forces, which resulted in the death of one of the island's residents and the arrest of dozens.
A number of families filed a lawsuit against official officials who issued a decision that resulted in the displacement of citizens, according to their description, and the Administrative Court ruled to reject the case, last February.
In December, the Supreme State Security Criminal Court sentenced 35 residents of the island to prison terms of between 5 and 25 years, due to clashes that took place between residents and security forces.
Lawyer and former presidential candidate Khaled Ali stressed that the people of Warraq Island did not attack state lands, but rather possessed title deeds to lands and homes.
And he posted, on his personal page on the social networking site Facebook, pictures of notarized sales contracts, and building licenses for the people of Al-Warraq.
As for the compensation of the people, it included the latest statement of the Council of Ministers regarding the plan to develop the island;
Determining material compensation for each agricultural acre and house, in addition to compensation in kind, and 81 fully equipped housing units have been delivered in the cities of Obour and October Gardens on the outskirts of Greater Cairo, while continuing to take the necessary measures to deliver the rest of the units allocated to the beneficiaries.
Earlier, the Urban Communities Authority announced the allocation of about 7 billion pounds in exchange for buying lands and homes for the people of Warraq Island as compensation for them.
The authority explained that an amount of 250 thousand pounds was set as compensation for carats of land, and with regard to homes, the owner would receive 16 thousand pounds for rooms, and people who refuse compensation can rent housing units until they are resettled on the island again after its development.
But the people of the island considered the compensation set by the government as low and not equal to the real price of their property, as well as their refusal from the ground up to leave their land.