Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) has expressed deep concern over the displacement of thousands of families at governorates of Upper Egypt, Red Sea and South Sinai, which were hit by floods, in light of reluctance of authorities to help the harmed people since mid-March.
In a statement on Wednesday, EIPR said that these families suffer the loss of homes, which were destroyed by the water of floods. They also lost many sources of earning their lives, as their lands and stores were flooded with the water.
The statement indicated that the EIPR estimate of all the harmed governorates showed that 4,300 families have been suffering as a result of the floods. Most of them were in Assiut, in addition to Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea and South Sinai. More than 2,700 houses were destroyed, around 1,400 houses of which collapsed, in addition to other material damages.
The collapse of houses, according to EIPR, left three killed and many others injured. The organization considered this as the biggest catastrophe in Egypt since the floods of 2010.
The statement added that only LE100 were disbursed as urgent allowance for every person from social solidarity departments, in addition to food supply, although two weeks had passed. However, other departments did not take actions to shelter the displaced families.
The EIPR quoted one of the displaced persons in Luxor as saying that he and his five-member family are staying in a tent and that the inspection committees randomly visited the place.
EIPR called on authorities in question to shelter the families and support them financially and with food. It also called on the Social Solidarity Ministry and governorates’ administrations to end the process of counting the losses and immediately start on compensating those affected by the disaster.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
