Some younger World Bank professionals are putting social development on par with economics During his first week as an architect in the upgrading project of Nasriya squatter settlement north of the Aswan Dam, Ahmed Eiweida learned a lesson that has influenced his whole approach to urban upgrading. He had set out to rebuild a community center, a simple two-story building with no ceiling or paint, and it seemed to him, a 1989 graduate in architecture from Assuit University, that almost any plan he could make would be an improvement. With its 50,000 inhabitants, Nasriya is the largest of 33 squatter settlements in the Governorate of Aswan, in southern Egypt. It is a poor hillside community where residents move through narrow streets broken by open sewer trenches. Houses are hand built with mud bricks or local stone.
Water is accessed from public spigots.
The settlement grew up in the 1960s during construction of the dam, as laborers poured in from nearby villages to work. But the government provided no formal housing or services, so the workers squatted on government-owned property. No formal plans were available for the community center, so Eiweida asked the project surveyor to help him. He then returned to his office drew the new design, including rooms for women's development activities, literacy training, a bathroom and so on. He felt good about his work.