Aug. 20, 2014 21:00
CAIRO: Ten governorate borders are to be redrawn, Minister of Local Development Adel Labib announced Tuesday in a press conference.
The minister explained that the redistricting would provide equal chances of development between all governorates, by amending spaces in order to provide new job opportunities for locals.
“Adding new spaces to governorates will provide the necessary locations for new investments, in addition to benefiting from several executed and suggested projects,” Labib added.
Redistricting governorates will also merge some of the poor areas in Upper Egypt and integrate them with well-resourced places to share elements of progress.
The project also aims to provide urban development by minimizing large administrative spaces between east and west sides of the Nile River, in addition to protecting the identity of the locals.
The minister explained that in some places in Upper Egypt, there are large families who live in different governorates, saying that the new governorate borders will consider the social elements and try to avoid splitting the families across governorate lines.
“Reorganizing governorate borders will ensure that main roads will pass through several governorates to improve the transportation network as much as possible,” the minister said in today’s conference.
Labib stated in the conference that the redrawing will add new spaces to seven governorates and will minimize the space of three others,
the governorates that will be increased in area include Fayoum, Luxor, Qena and others while the size of Red Sea, Wadi el-Gedid and Minya would be reduced.
Qena will be increased by 194 percent of its current space to reach 30,107 square kilometers instead of 10,544 square kilometers. The minister indicated that with this increase, the governorate would have a port on the Red Sea, while Fayoum’s space will be augmented by 100 percent of its size to reach 12,961 square kilometers.
Beni Suef will be increased by67 percent of its original size to reach 17,721square kilometers, Aswan will be 102 percent larger, Luxor will be 10 times its current size, Sohaglands will be increased by 222 percent andAsyut will be enlarged by 105 percent.
Minya, on the other hand, will be eight percent less than its original space to become 30,235 square kilometers and el-Wadi el-Gedid’s area will be decreased by 34 percent to become 279,325 square kilometers.
The Red Sea governorate decreased by around 90 percent of its space to be 8,840 square kilometers instead of 117,957 square kilometers.
During the conference, the minister explained that the reduced space from the three governorates will be added to other governorates and included in their borders. He also said thatThe Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA) would study the exact coordinates of governorate borders and announce them within the few upcoming months.
The next stage of the redistricting would include taking necessary steps for adding new governorates, which will be Middle of Sinai, Alamein, and el-Wahat, according to the minister.
Regarding parliamentary elections, the minister stressed that reorganizing governorate borders will not affect electoral districts, adding that the project will be a step towards decentralization and solving different issues in Egypt including electricity, pointing out that the new borders will not affect services in the governorates.
Egypt’s population was calculated to reach 87 million Tuesday, announced the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced in a Sunday statement.
http://thecairopost.com/news/122542/news/10-governorate-borders-to-be-redrawn
