Giza water cut: six hours overnight from Friday into Saturday

Part of Giza will lose its water supply overnight this weekend. Giza Governorate said in a statement on Thursday that drinking water will be cut for six hours in the area between the Amr Ibn El Aas axis and Othman Moharram Street, so engineers can finish pipe work linked to the new road along the Al Ikhlas axis.

The cut starts at midnight on Friday night, 6 November, and is due to end at 6am on Saturday 7 November. The Giza Water and Wastewater Company will connect smaller side pipes, 100 mm and 150 mm wide, to a 300 mm main made of ductile iron that runs beside the Al Ikhlas canal between Othman Moharram Street and the Amr Ibn El Aas axis. Once the pipes are joined, the Greater Cairo development authority can go ahead and pave that stretch of the axis.

The governor, Ahmed El Ansary, told the company to keep to the announced hours and to bring the water back as soon as the work is done. Masrawy and Youm7 both carried the notice on Thursday evening.

This is not the first night of work on this corridor. In late September a similar overnight cut hit Al Orouba and Al Ikhlas streets, on the same stretch from Othman Moharram Street to the Amr Ibn El Aas axis, while older lines beside the canal were replaced as part of the same Al Ikhlas axis project. More short cuts are likely until the paving is finished.

If you live in the area, fill bottles and a few pots before you go to bed on Friday, and run the washing machine or dishwasher earlier in the evening. Pressure may be weak for a while after 6am on Saturday as the pipes refill. Bakeries, clinics and anyone who cannot store water can ask for a tanker of clean drinking water during the cut by calling the water company's hotline, 125. The statement did not list individual streets inside the area, so if you are near either boundary, plan as if you are affected.