workers

South of Cairo, on the East Bank: Agricultural land is scarce, and since the 60's the area has been dedicated to the national industrial product: Ciment factories spit out their white smoke. On the edge of desert land, 150 brick factories have florished, favoured by the construction sector boom of the 90's.

At the core of the site, villages accomodaite 30,000 peasants and settled Bedouins: They live under a constant shower of three kinds of dust: the yellow one, coming from quarries in the desert; the white one, coming from the ciment factories; the black one, called "kohl", coming from fuel combustion at brick fatories.

In brick factories: estimated 40,000 workers. They come from everywhere in Egypte: From poor villages from the South, from the Fayoum. They usually stay on site for the week or for several months. The turn-over is high, the work is hard: with three team shifts a day, the kiln burns and is cared for around the clock.

An estimated of 70,000 people live in this area, in dust, industrial pollution and their consequences. They live with scarce medical or sanitary infrastructures, and to complete this picture, running water is undrinkable and has already spoiled many feddans of previously cultivated land.

This web page, as vain and ineffective as it may be, is dedicated to them.

Social Science in Egypt and the Middle East

Brick Factories in South Cairo