CDWS (diving chamber in Egypt) falling apart

[alxdiv]

:lotsalove: in Egypt every few years we have new commer to put more law and to develop more problems
CDWS develped 2 years ago , they force the dive centers to pay them lots of meny which not justified by law reach up to 2000 $.
many problems ahhpened, many dive accidents also happened, 2 members of the commetee of the CDWS RESIGNED and again it fall apart and will disappear soon, but dive center has paid Millions to these new commers CDWS and the money nad the chamber ........diappear.
we had enough of these new laws and new commer to tell I am the champion and I put new laws enogh enough

[alxdiv]

Yes Mr. Hamed and Mr. Amr have resigned and the members of the board of the chamber CDSW under police investigation for corruption

[Taucher007]

I dive regularly in Egypt, mainly in Sharm El Shik, Hurgada, Safaga and marsa Allam. In the last two times I wisited Egypt I was told by the Dive master that there is new laws as you said but he said it in a positive way, like Dive master are not allowed to make beginner dives like before and that it is very difficult for a non dive master to guide like before. I asked the manager in the Dive center and he said that there is new laws from the CDWS and that for him it is better as the ****ty dive centers are the ones who have problems with CDWS and not the good qualitat centers. Also the ads in the dive magazines are very good

[Interceptor121]

CDWS only gives the basic framework that as a diving operation you should follow anyway
Does not make anything better or worse but it has resulted in some operations being shut because they didn't even have the minimum requirements in place. Having seen some of those I can only agree on the decision.
CDWS and HEPCA are a good effort and in terms of corruption Egypt is a mess anyway, even the secret police is corrupted so I don't see that being more than an issue as anyone replacing them would be just the same.
At least you can only teach or dive if you have a valid insurance, before CDWS it was the responsibility of the dive centre to check that and some of them, especially those run by Egyptians didn't even have the concept and no personnel was insured at all

[alxdiv]

we just want to agree on one base that the CDWS is a coruupted place and they close the bigeest dive centers cz they are concerance then after the striks they reopen it with limited permissions for 3 months and they stpped 300 daily dive boats in Hurghada then they got permission by the secret police for only 6 month and no one know wht is their plann any way their plann is to make money as much as possible and kill any concerance and now they are under investigation by the police for corruption and might badly end their stories

[alxdiv]

would like to say thet all dive accidents happen during the last 2 years where the ISO has been applied happend in ISO dive centers which mean where is the protection the chamber gave to the diving industry we had enough STOP THE CHAMBER WE DON`T WANT IT

[Taucher007]

I am not sure what do you mean when you say we but the ISO or any standards will not prevent accidents from happening but it should minimize them. Do you have a statistic about diving accidents in egypt before and after the standards? I do not think so. Can you name the "BIG" diving centers you are referring to?

[Interceptor121]

The guy has obviosly a personal interest in the discussion. Maybe he has been directly affected by some decision of the chamber...
In Egypt every authority is prone to corruption not only CDWS is something you learn to live with

[String]

CDWS falling apart can only be good for the industry. The corruption at the top level along with the personal interests/shares of the chairman and his links to certain dive companies is ridiculous. If you want a standards body it has to at least TRY to be neutral and CDWS most clearly isnt.

They do absolutely nothing to further diver safety what-so-ever and simply stifle competition and other things.

[Interceptor121]

I agree on the personal interests, I also think Egypt needs some regulatory body especially to take care of some diving centre categories, and unfortunately it is also a fact that whatever body you create it will become corrupted, it is Egypt after all corruption is the norm

[alxdiv]

I think everybody agree on one base here that corruption is the base of CDWS in Egypt and that what I am stressing on CORRUPTION and we have engough !!!!!

[samaka]

Some other peoples' point of view.

- CLEOPATRA’S PALACE (http://www.ukdivers.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=109)

...a...

[Interceptor121]

Ha ha ha ha ha

[divebunnie]

Hmmm I can't help but answer here.

My initial reply was a slightly inflammatory rebuke in favour of the CDWS, however I thought it was maybe a little harsh. So here is the shorter version:

The CDWS has been formed in an attempt to get rid of the dead wood. What they want is for the dive centres in Sharm to be run according to generally accepted safety and conservation standards, and those that don't meet the grade are not approved. It is as simple as that.

As someone who works for a centre that is one of the bigger ones, I am proud of the fact that we work hard, follow PADI standards and endeavour to provide our guests with the safest diving experience possible. And that I feel, is how all dive centres should be run, anywhere in the world.

As for corruption, I think that may be a cultural issue, not a CDWS issue, and as someone who works for a centre in direct competition with that of the CDWS chairman, how come we got approval if he was trying to shut us all down?

[UKUnderWater]

CDWS is a business association and the Diving business in Egypt is regulated by the Ministry of Tourism. Alexandra Dive (ALexDiv) is a lousy outfit in Alexandria managed by Dr. Ashraf Sabri and there was a huge incident a couple of years ago involving a group from Regal Divers and recently the center did not pass the ISO/EN standards inspection required by the Ministry of Tourism to be granted an operation license and the center has been black listed by the Chamber and it is listed on their website cdws dot travel and thus the unsupported attack from Ashraf Sabri!!!

[UKUnderWater]

CDWS is a business association and the Diving business in Egypt is regulated by the Ministry of Tourism. Alexandra Dive (ALexDiv) is a lousy outfit in Alexandria managed by Dr. Ashraf Sabri and there was a huge incident a couple of years ago involving a group from Regal Divers and recently the center did not pass the ISO/EN standards inspection required by the Ministry of Tourism to be granted an operation license and the center has been black listed by the Chamber and it is listed on their website cdws dot travel and thus the unsupported attack from Ashraf Sabri!!!

And Please try to learn a bit of English or use the help of a friend before posting! :-)

[UKUnderWater]

Please visit SAMAKA link above titles Cleopatra's Palace as it has a report of Alexandra Dive regal/ group mentioned in my last post,

Thank Samaka

[Interceptor121]

Hmmm I can't help but answer here.

My initial reply was a slightly inflammatory rebuke in favour of the CDWS, however I thought it was maybe a little harsh. So here is the shorter version:

The CDWS has been formed in an attempt to get rid of the dead wood. What they want is for the dive centres in Sharm to be run according to generally accepted safety and conservation standards, and those that don't meet the grade are not approved. It is as simple as that.

As someone who works for a centre that is one of the bigger ones, I am proud of the fact that we work hard, follow PADI standards and endeavour to provide our guests with the safest diving experience possible. And that I feel, is how all dive centres should be run, anywhere in the world.

As for corruption, I think that may be a cultural issue, not a CDWS issue, and as someone who works for a centre in direct competition with that of the CDWS chairman, how come we got approval if he was trying to shut us all down?

This is the clean version of my post. Corruption is an issue in Egypt not specific to CDWS we can start writing books about it
Having looked at some dive center they have shut I can't say they were in the wrong and it would seem also that of Mr Sabri here
Talking numbers here and nothing personal to some specific individuals who do an outstanding job, some of the Egyptyan managed dive centers are shocking and we all know that. It is not a concidence that those are the majority amongst those that have been shut...