Where is 10th of ramadan city

It is a first-generation new urban community, and one of the most industrialized. Cairo, Egypt Cairene Abbaseya. Al Ashir min Ramadan is located on the Cairo-Ismailia desert highway, 46 km from Cairo and 20 km from the city Belbeis. Bilbays Bilbais Phelbes. Tropical rainforest climate Oceanic climate Tropical climate Humid subtropical climate Tropical monsoon climate. For the preparation of a Master Plan for Tenth of Ramadan City a group was formed between the Swedish architectural and engineering firm, the main consultant on the project, and the Egyptian sub-consultant called COPA.

Finalised in , the Master Plan called for a long-term development in four stages, each for a population of averagely , The first , were to be reached by the year By the year the population of Tenth of Ramadan City was only little above The city has had serious problems with attracting both inhabitants and industry. Meant to be affordable for low-income workers the housing rents turned out to be much higher than planned.

For most people it was too expensive to live in the city, and social facilities and services were lacking in the town. Many of them share flats or stay in flats provided by the workshop owner. After each interview, an « informal assessment » was prepared by the interviewers.

Professional vocational training, working for an extended timespan at the same workshop or for various companies in the same field are considered to build skills. For example, a worker may acquire skills through « training on the job » by working in the field of plastic products for several years. According to these criteria, the sample is composed of 49 skilled and 55 unskilled workers.

This was partly due to caution, notably when the factory director was listening. The entrepreneurs stress that high labour turnover is one of their major problems : « Someone pays them a few extra pounds and they are gone.

When asked about factors that could attract them to another working place, most of the workers mentioned higher wages. As many as 33 workers stress that they would like to change to public sector employment as soon as possible. These workers are well aware of resulting disadvantages, especially low wages. Advantages mentioned mostly concern the stability of public sector employment and the social security provided. The majority of workers commenting on the advantages of the public sector do not expect a decline of its importance in Egypt.

Conversely, some workers expressed the hope that they may « grow with the workshop » that employs them. Many workers depict the instability and insecurity prevailing in a number of workshops. According to them, workers come and go depending on the economic situation of the company. Some workers even state that every 6 months the workforce changes entirely. Both employer and employee tend to understate these sums, as taxes and contributions to social security are based upon them.

Sometimes, overtime and extra payments are not mentioned even though or because some workers may work overtime every day. Nevertheless, the wage average based on the findings of the ASA study group is considerably higher than the one found by El Mahdy and El Said in One problem in defining working hours stems from the fact that overtime is often understood as being an integral part of working hours. Thus, some workers may officially work 8 hours, but in fact work for another 4 hours daily. Even without these overtime hours, their wages might be insufficient.

If transport for the non-resident is provided free of charge by a company after 12 working hours, workers have an even bigger interest in this regular overtime work. In one extraordinary case, 8 of the respondents work 24 hours non-stop and are granted a free day afterwards.

They all describe this as being extremely tiring. The direct involvement of the entrepreneur in production, a feature often attributed to small industries, does not seem to apply in the « C2 » companies visited.

As found during the study, sensitive questions related to work security and environmental pollution often prompt caution or are not understood by the workers.

A more pragmatic approach to obtain workers' ideas about their work environment was to put an open question to the respondents regarding their ideas about what could be changed or amended at their work place. After structuring the answers, the results read as follows :. In many cases, better air circulation or air exhaust are demanded. Another point frequently brought up is the lack of a special time or a room designated for recess.

They demand more guarantees of their rights and less pressure from management. The workers suggest that rules concerning work should be explicitly noted and wish to be better informed about their rights. They hope that initiatives towards increasing social security will be undertaken by their employers.

Some workers accept this as they expect to stay at the workshop only for a limited time. Some workers underline their lack of trust in the formal Social Insurance system : « I have no money to spare for this. The majority of these suggestions aim at establishing a Trust Fund as a privately organized alternative to the official Social Insurance system. In several cases, the second source of income of the workers comes from owning a small workshop, while others continue to work as farmers.

Considering also the fact that workers are often not insured by their employer, a question arises as to how the workers can cope financially with extraordinary and critical situations.

Other resources such as a Trust Fund, friends or overtime work play only a minor role. Illnesses and accidents rank first in a list of concrete examples for critical situations given by workers : in around one third of the cases, these have caused a worker a difficult situation. This usually means that the sum obtained is paid back by monthly wage deductions. Workers' statements on experiences such as these stress the normality and acceptability of mutual help among family members.

Obtaining a loan from the employer is also a widely accepted means of solving financial problems, but many respondents stated that a monthly cut in wages causes other problems and that paying back such a loan can therefore be difficult.

Clearly, offering a loan can be used as a means of tying workers to their workshop. This sum comes from the Trust Fund administered by the accounting department of a company.

Another advantage of the Fund is that all workers may equally benefit from it, regardless of their status contract, probation time, no contract within the factory. This may be due to previous experiences workers had at other bigger? Workers also pointed out that they usually discuss and compare wages and other benefits when meeting workers from other companies, for example when travelling from their hometown to 10th of Ramadan City.

The workers' knowledge of Trust Fund systems coincides with the willingness of the majority to contribute to such a Fund. Its vast empty roads and the buildings built in orderly squares are striking. The construction of the City was originally supposed to involve private investors and the Council of City Development. In later stages, however, the Council started to build whole quarters, especially for lower income groups. Today, vast desert areas, intended for buildings and mostly sold to private investors, are lying unused between four-track roads with a strip of greenery in between.

This half-completed look characterizes all but the oldest quarters of 10th of Ramadan City. In contrast to these, where a diversity of housing styles prevails, the newer parts consist of mostly five-storey buildings intended for workers who can rent or buy a flat. These are lively quarters, as a large part of the working population of 10th of Ramadan City is residing there of late. In the older quarters, main houses and flats are empty.