Warraq Island residents offer NSA proposal to remain during development

Representatives of the “We Are Staying on Warraq Island” group briefed hundreds of members Friday evening on a meeting with National Security Agency (NSA) officials, saying they had presented an alternative proposal that would allow residents to remain on the island as the area is developed and that the agency is expected to respond.

The group’s representatives met with NSA officials Thursday evening at the agency’s request, according to a group source who spoke to Al Manassa. The source said residents had rejected an offer that agency representatives made by phone to some group members about a week earlier and instead presented their own proposal.

Under the proposal, inhabitants of the residential zone would be allowed to build on government-owned land in exchange for the expropriation of their existing homes in the same area. Vacating those homes would allow the area to be gradually developed, with services provided and roads built, the source said.

The proposal also includes moving residents who wish to leave the “outlying areas” to the residential zone and giving them land to build homes on in exchange for the expropriation of their original homes. Residents who prefer apartments would also be allowed to receive replacement units in the high-rise buildings being built as part of government real estate projects.

NSA representatives announced at the meeting that island residents could reserve 1,000 apartments in the government-built towers in exchange for giving up their homes, the source explained, with the reservation period running from Sept. 30 through Oct. 15.

The NSA proposal made days earlier would allow residents of the residential zone to remain in their homes while giving residents of the outlying areas three options: replacement housing off the island, apartments in the residential towers, or land on which to build in the area purchased by the government within the residential zone.

“The government proposal only moves residents of the outlying areas into the residential zone without considering development of the residential zone itself, which is why we rejected it,” the source said. 

The current situation means the state has already backed away somewhat from its previous hard-line approach toward island residents and has implicitly begun recognizing everyone’s right to remain on the island and build rural-style homes, rather than limiting the proposed solutions to obtaining apartments, the source added.

Last year, former head of the New Warraq City Authority Osama Shawky proposed a plan to keep residents of the residential zone in their homes, on an area of about 300 feddans (1.26 square kilometers). 

At the time, Shawky proposed allowing residents to remain in the residential zone without interfering with their homes while the state began its projects in the outlying areas, which make up the larger share of the island’s total area and where the state’s projects are concentrated. The proposal has not yet been officially announced.

The “We Are Staying on Warraq Island” group announced its formation earlier this month, bringing together dozens of island residents determined to remain there in the face of government plans to relocate residents and establish luxury real estate projects.