Port Said - City of Resisitance

Press 'captions' for English subtitles.

Video by Simon Hanna for Ahram Online. Still photography by Mohamed Nada.

Music by Port Said's El Tanbura.

Egypt's Farmers suffer from water theft

Farmers in Fayoum - 130 km south west of Cairo - are no longer able to grow crops on the land they've been farming for generations.

Years ago businessmen built illegal encroachments on their source of water, leaving their land barren. With 10,000 feddans of previously fertile land affected by this situation, the farmers have become desperate. Despite having met a series of irrigation ministers and despite promises from President Mohamed Morsi, no one has removed the illegal encroachments and returned the water to the farmers. The land continues to lie barren.

Full story here: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/56401.aspx

Egypt slum crippled by water crisis

The 'informal settlement' (read: slum) of Safat el Laban is home to around 400,000 residents. Normally, they get around 2 hours of water a day. Recently, during the oppressive Egyptian summer, this has been reduced to zero.

This is a report of the sit-in held at the Giza governate HQ in protest at the water cuts.

And this is footage from within Safat el Laban, where families are seriously affected by the lack of water: