Media websites we love: Mada Masr
Rashid is divided into two: On one side of the river the town is functioning, quiet, but full of cars, shops and markets. The other side is more makeshift, lined with unfinished housing, and the agricultural canal where many people get their water is choked with trash.
“They throw their waste in there and then they drink from it,” exclaims Walid Abdel Khalek, a local community organizer, after watching a local woman throw a carton full of waste liquid into the canal.
When asked how many people get sick from the water in Rashid, both Abdel Khalek and local fisherman Ahmed* laugh. “Everyone here is sick,” Ahmed says.
canal-filled-with-trash-by-abdel-khalek
Rashid hit the headlines recently when a boat carrying at least 400 migrants sank off its coast on September 21, killing over 200 people. Reports speculate there may have been as many as 450 people onboard, although exact figures are not available.
Those on the boat were of a mixture of nationalities — Eritreans, Somalians and Sudanese. But there were also a number of Egyptians on board, many of them from local towns near Rashid.
