Over 130 families and former residents of Sayeda Aicha neighbourhoods have started arriving at Asmarat social housing due to fears of collapse of their buildings.  

Cairo municipal authority has marked 47 buildings for demolition and has bulldozed 31 buildings used sheltering 35 families.

Asmarat is offers alternative housing to slum dwellers. The current occupants of its fully-furnished buildings were formerly resident in shanties of Qaleat Al Kabsh, Al Mawardy, Ezbet Khair Allah, Mansheyet Nasser Maspero Triangle among others.

Head of Asmarat Municipal Authority Hassan al-Ghandour said its alternative housing project plans to collaborate with Orman Charity Organization to exempt widows, divorced women, and the disabled persons from paying LE3600 annual rent.

Ghandour explained that the neighborhood is of a great interest to the political leadership and that Cairo governor visits the place weekly. He added that the neighborhood is home to several factories that secure 1,400 jobs to women paying them LE3,500 as income salary and offering paid internships at LE1,000.

The third phase of the project also includes a football pitch, four multi-purpose playgrounds, two swimming pools, a social building, a garden for children, four nurseries, four health units, a car mark that can hold up to 1,000 cars. Also, a mosque, a church and an automatic bakery production line will be established.

Social Solidarity Minister Nevin Al-Qabbaj explained last year that 13.6 percent of Asmarat families have female breadwinners with one in every two family having more than four members most of whom have unstable and irregular jobs.

Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma’it said in July last year that the country plans to implement 100,000 housing units during fiscal year of 2020/2021, in addition to planning to complete 105,000 units in 2021/2022.

The death toll caused by tropical storm Chalane in central Mozambique has risen from four to seven, according to Mozambique’s National Calamities Management Institute (INGC).

The storm has passed through Madagascar and Zimbabwe.

The three new fatalities in Mozambique were recorded in Chimoio, the capital of Manica province capital, and were all caused by drowning.

The first four were in the provinces of Sofala and Manica where there was one death each, and in Zambézia where two people lost their lives.

The storm has left at least 10 people injured in Sofala, Manica and Zambézia, and several houses destroyed and a total of 36,000 people affected.

On Sunday, the country’s President Filipe Nyusi asked the public to abandon risky zones as the storm approached the country. His warning came after a meeting with INGC personnel. 

The National Calamities Management Institute did earlier forecasted that four million people will be affected and more than 6,000 schools and 550 health facilities in risky zones damaged.

In March and April 2019, cyclone Idai, with its epicentre at the port of Beira, the country’s second-largest city, and cyclone Kenneth, hit Mozambique just few weeks apart.

Both cyclones are the worst natural disasters recorded in the country in the last two decades.

Hitting the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula, Cyclone Kenneth affected more than 400,000 people.

At least 1000 people died in Mozambique in 2019, due to the cyclones.

The Likoni floating bridge constructed at a cost of Sh1.9 billion officially opened to the public on January 1. This is in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive on commissioning the project in December.

The footbridge connecting Mainland south to Mombasa Island is the first pedestrian footbridge built at the Likoni crossing channel by the State Department of Infrastructure.  

The project is expected to ease pressure at the Likoni ferries and end human congestion at the crossing channels.  Likoni county residents for the first time had the relief of cutting down the time between Likoni to Mombasa. Unlike using the ferries, the bridge is an easier way to connect to Mombasa town centre.

Regional Commissioner John Elungata and the police chief Gabriel Musau led other security officials to oversee movement as commuters plied the bridge which is only seven minutes to cross by foot.

Elungata urged members of the public to make use of the footbridge in order to decongest the overwhelmed Likoni ferries.  

Residents expressed excitement at the completion of the project and lauded the timely initiative by Government.

There are however concerns that the fate of the highly publicised Likoni cable car project initially meant to start in 2017 after receiving Cabinet approval may now be stalled. It was to be undertaken by Trapos Limited but encountered a lot of false starts.

With the commissioning of the Likoni bridge, the fate of the cable cars now hangs in the balance.

Transport Principal Secretary Solomon Kitungu explained that “The cable car is not necessarily to be substituted by the floating bridge. However, project sponsors will have to respond accordingly. If they find out that there is no market then they might not go on with it,”  

Last year, a Senate committee questioned the capacity of Trapos Limited to undertake the project and directed the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) to cite similar projects the company had successfully completed.  

The cable system was designed for a total of 28 cabins and a maximum of 5,500 passengers per hour across the channel in three minutes and 40 seconds.

Elungata who was equally in the company of Kenya Ports Authority officials and Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) Engineers said that a standard operating procedure will be released on Monday next week because the bridge lies on a sea route used by marine vessels leaving and docking at the port of Mombasa.

The administrator said the engineers and other staffers are on training and will soon be deployed to take over the appropriate running of the bridge.