The Duweika Disaster Ten Years On – Part 1: Disaster and Aftermath

The BEO marks the tenth anniversary of the rockslide disaster in the area of Duweika in Cairo, with a series spotlighting one of the major urban and social events that the city witnessed in contemporary times.

Part one chronicles the events of the disastrous rockslide, as well as the immediate aftermath

A Disaster

Just before 9 am, on Saturday September 6^th 2008 (Ramadan 6^th, 1429), a series of rockslides was put in motion, where eight gigantic boulders each the size of a small house, broke free form the side of the Duweika Plateau in the district of Manshiyat Nasser in Cairo, crashing down on the homes of Ezbet Bekhit below. [1]

The first of the rockslides was also the most disastrous, destroying at least 166 homes,[2] killing 119 people, and injuring 55 others according to official statistics.[3]  Local eyewitness reports from residents and local councilmen indicate the toll to be much higher. A series of more limited rockslides occurred in the ensuing three weeks,[4] and the neighbourhood would change for ever.

Causes of the Rockslide

Speculations appeared at the time of the disaster pointing to the coincidence of a number of factors that all played a role in the rockslide. According to Abdallah Sorour, a geologist who prepared a report for the Ministry of Housing in 1994 in the aftermath of two earlier deadly rockslides in the same area,[5] the Moqattam Plateau’s geologic formation has made it weak in particular points, while its steep vertical cliffs (the result of centuries of rock quarrying), leading to cracks. Other reports pointed to sewage water seepage in the rock from a government emergency housing estate built over the plateau that contributed to weakening the plateau’s edge.

Another less discussed factor, were local eyewitness reports made to the prosecutor about a municipal project to reshape the cliff edges (digging and grading) within the area in the three months up to the day of the disastrous rockslide.[6] The head of the local Housing Department mentioned this in a statement to the prosecutor,[7] however he blamed the residents for remaining in their homes during the work, ignoring an eviction order. In the same testimony, the Manshiyat Nasser district head denied that the work was on the plateau itself, stating it was 100 metres away.

In the end, it was mostly avoidable man-made factors that that have led to the plateau’s destabilization as far back as 15 prior to the Duweika rockslide.

Search and Rescue

A host of government agencies arrived at the scene within hours of the disaster, including emergency services, the armed forces and the police. Local residents also played a big role in the search and rescue operation. However, heavy machinery needed to breakup and lift the boulders was late to arrive. It proved too big for the neighborhood’s streets, where the local government started to demolish five homes and a railway embankment to open access to the disaster zone from a main street.[8] Residents of some of the homes also resisted their eviction, as Cairo governorate did not give them strong assurance to their compensation.[9] All this meant that until late in the evening, 12 hours after the disaster, the machinery needed was still not on site, delaying the search for possible survivors trapped beneath the rubble.

Some 39 survivors, and 26 dead were pulled out of the rubble on the first day.[10] On the second a further 14 survivors made it out, while 9 more bodies were found.[11] By the third day the chance of finding further survivors dwindled, mostly because of the slow rescue operation that relied on people, many of whom were local residents digging by hand using cut out jerrycans and empty tins as improvised shovels in search of their loved ones.[12] Arguments also broke out between the residents and the emergency crews over where to dig, and over the use of their handheld diggers.[13] Government agencies started to show their impatience with the rescue operation four days later, spraying the rubble with kerosene in an effort to mitigate the stench of the decomposing bodies beneath, while residents accused them of burying over a home that had not yet been searched, leading to skirmishes between them and eventually, Central Security Forces being called in to intervene.[14]

In an atmosphere charged with tension, protest, and bottomless sadness, the search operation continued for about a month. Government agencies attempted to withdraw after the first ten days,[15] but pressure from the residents to find the remains of everyone who perished meant a limited forced stayed with them for almost a month until the holy month of Ramadan ended.[16] The official operation ended after 119 bodies were dug out and identified. But residents insisted that the lost were much more, as many lost family members or neighbours they knew well. Most families were still at home the morning rocks toppled over their roofs, many were asleep or getting ready for the day,[17] while school was still off for summer so children were still home. The lists of the deceased show multiple members of the same immediate and extended families.[18] Prosecutors also undercounted the dead, as they only officially tallied identified bodies, while unidentifiable remains and body parts were excluded.[19] Now that the entire area has been leveled, it is impossible to know the true number the rockslide claimed.

The Duweika cliff overlooks the scene of the disaster four years later, which was later leveled and left vacant, with some of the boulders remaining – BEO

Demolitions, Camps, and Rehousing

Over the first few days of the disaster, the Cairo Governor announced that 266 families had been sheltered in emergency camps put up in the local Manshiyat Nasser sports club, and in the Fustat park in another district eight kilometres away.[20] 166 of these families had lost their homes to the rockslide, while the rest had been evicted either because their homes had sustained irreparable damage, or because they were part of the first wave of demolitions of homes considered within the danger zone. In another five days, the governor announced the rehousing of 289 families in new apartments in the New Duweika/ Suzane Mubarak housing estate nearby,[21] which was part of a EGP 1.2bn grant from the Abdhabi Development Fund to upgrade the area. Within a month of the disaster, 1600 homes had been evicted and demolished in Ezbet Bekhit and Duweika, and the governor announced a total of 1713 families being rehoused on the new estate.[22]

Despite these announcements and the fact that 2000 housing units were vacant and available, local government officials in charge of the rehousing made it almost impossible for many to receive their rightful compensation. Rents of EGP 55 – 60 were imposed,[23] even though the housing was built by a grant. In the absence of title deeds and rental contracts, that were either lost in the rockslide, or did not exist because tenure was mainly semi-formal in the area, the rehousing officials only accepted death certificates of family members as proof of residence.[24] While many families had found the remains of their loved ones, others would have waited a month before finding the remains of their loved ones, or, would never find them. In other instances, many of those evicted during the waves of demolitions were not accepted even though they had official eviction letters, as the rehousing officials claimed that their ID cards had to have been registered locally, something many of the urban immigrants had not done.[25] Still, many of those that had their papers accepted and that were assigned units, were shocked to find that up to three different families were assigned the same two- bedroom units and expected to share them.[26] This led to fights between the families over who gets the apartments, as well as skirmishes between the families and the officials, until Central Security Forces were brought in once again to bring order back. [27]

The rehousing operation quickly unraveled due to the officials’ fraudulent actions. Tens of families protested and held sit-ins for days in front of both the Cairo Governorate, and the Housing Office as the housing estate, which the security forces violently dispersed, injuring 12 residents and arresting 15.[28] At the same time, and probably after news of the hurdles to compensation spread, resistance against the demolitions rose, and more families refused to leave their homes even though they were deemed as unsafe.[29]

Notes and References