El Sakka: How Egyptians used to drink before sanitation
- Journalistic Translation
- Jun 24, 2022
- 1 min read
Is considered one of the oldest jobs in Egypt, El Sakka first appeared as a profession in the 18th and the 19th century.
El Sakka is a person who is responsible for delivering fresh water from the Nile or the water tanks to mosques, houses, schools.
To be a Sakka, there are some specific qualifications you should have as not anyone could be a sakka.. hereby some of these qualifications:
You have to get a license first:
To work as a Sakka, you have to get a license from the ministry of interior that holds your name, address, age, birthplace, and the name of the alleys you are assigned to work in. He has to put his license on his shoulder in order to be known for all. The applicant takes a tough test where he carries a skin-bag filled with sand that could weight 70lbs for 3 days without leaning or sitting.
Delivering water was not their only task:
The Sakka’s roles weren’t just delivering and selling water, he also sprinkles water in the streets and alleys in order to add some coolness to the weather specially when it’s hot. He is sometimes even assigned to put off fires that’s why he has to be steady all the time.
The disappearance of the job:
In 1865, the job gradually disappeared from the streets of Cairo after the khedive ordered to backfill the Egyptian Gulf and giving an international company the concession of plumbing water to the houses. After-then, a company of water and plumbing machines and pipes that delivered water to houses was established . Since then, the nile water reaches houses fresh, clean and safe to drink
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