Overpopulation in Cairo Essay

The problem in Cairo

• Cairo, Egypt is completely overpopulated. People have to live in cemeteries from lack of housing. This causes a problem because of the close proximity, it is easier to catch and spread diseases and can lead to food shortages. The overpopulation is caused by 99% of Egypt being a desert and impossible to live in. This also causes a problem for the environment because the population produces a lot of waste and it can end up in the Nile River or the Mediterranean Sea.

Human Impact

• Humans have caused this problem because of the little land available for use and the high fertility rate in Egypt. Egypt’s current fertility rate is 3.01 children/woman which is incredibly high considering the current population problems they have. As you see from the diagram Egypt’s population has grown by 21% in 10 years that’s 1.8 million people per year!

Solution #1

• A solution for this problem is a dike and polder system. The dike and polder system involves building a wall in the water and taking the water out of that area so it can be used as land for housing.

The only problem with this it could hurt the fishing industry if too much land is taken. Another problem could be flooding of the Nile Delta causing flooding for the housing here.

Sloot=ditch; molen=mill; gemaal= milling; kanaal= channel; dijk=dike

Solution #2

• Egypt could build a sister city to Cairo across the Nile Delta like Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota so that people will move to the sister city looking for new job opportunities and there will be more housing in this new city. By building a new city in close proximity, this city could overpopulate as well in a short time (relatively speaking), which could lead to more disease transfer. Also creating a new city would increase pollution in Egypt which is a global crisis right now.

Best Solution

• In our opinion the best solution for Cairo would be to create a dike and polder system because it is more permanent of a solution. Also it doesn’t have as much of a negative effect as building a new city. Although it may stunt fishing, and cause flooding, it wouldn’t be too bad because it wouldn’t create pollution that a city would.