Air quality among the worst in the world And water pollution remains a pressing health issue, writes Yolande Knefl.
From a vantage point on the hills east of Cairo, many ot the city’s environmental problems are clear at a glance. It 15 overcrowded and sprawling with highdensity housing surrounded by slums.
The streets are dirty, chimneys of smail factories belch o t fumes and traffic sits in gridlock. With a population of 18m, the rapid growth of thè Egyptian capital has outstripped services and damaged natural resources: the Nile is badly polluted and air quality is consistently ranked among the worst in the world. The most severe air pollution episodes occur each October and November when a dense, dark cloud consisting of suspended partic !es hnked to respiratory disease, appears. The black cloud is the result of traffic emissions, smali industry and open burning of solid waste but one source dominates, says Ahmed Aboul El-Seoud, undersecretary at the environment ministry. There Is a huge volume of rice straw left after the harvest in the Delta and farmers tend to b rn it to get rid of it. The government has introduced fines and criminalised burning crop straw but there are stili thom sands of violations. I want to clear my land. What should I do? asks Mustafa, a rice farmer in Sharqiya governorate 45 km from Cairo.
There is no choice but to set it alight. 11 you lèave the straw, then mice come and eat the crop. While private companies are contracted to collect rice remains so they cari be turned into cattie feed or fertiliser they cannot keep pace with demand. The uroblem Is there until we have enough capacity, Th £1 Seoud says. Neverthe less, he insists progress ha been made. Monitoring ovei several years in the capita] indicates the cloud is noi hanging about for as lon as it did and there are lowex concentrations of particles. Some recent improvemeni in air quaiity has been due to the removal of many antiquated black and white taxis. After traffic legisla tion required drivers te replace cabs that are more than 20 years old, the ministry of finance arranged a low-interest loan scheme with three Egyptian banks so drivers could buy new cars.
The government pays them $900 to scrap old ones and advertising painted on the vehicies heips cover repayments. People have responded quickly, says Mohamed Abdel Aziz from the ministry. He says 34,000 taxis in Cairo have been targeted and 15,000 new white cabs are now ori the roads. We have had positive feedback from drivers, customers, car manufacturers and other stalcehoiders.
It’s better for the economy and the traffic. Efforts are aiso being made to have taxis and other vehicles run on cieaner compressed natural gas. At about a third of the price of petroi, it becarne more popular foliowing a fuel subsidy cut iast year. Some power stations and factories are also switching over. Plans to move heavy industries away from cities shouid aiso enhance the air quality.
Water pollution remains a pressing environmentai ami health issue across Egypt. While the government says it has stopped dozens of pianta discharging effluent into the Nile, the main water source, researchers assert that parts of the river are stili badly contaminated . lt puts question marks over the quality of drinking water in generai, says Mohamed Nagi, executive The government’s decision to cui) pigs, folIowing news of an outbreak of swine flu, has upset the system director of the :abi Centre for Environmentai Rights. There are three types of pollution in the Nile: lndustrial, agricultural – lneluding pesticides ami fertiliser – and human waste. Management of waste systems has generafly failed to keep pace with the expanding population. Cairo has long relied on the informai sector for its rubbish collection.
For decades the zabaleen, a mainly Coptic Christian community, has removed much of the rubbish. Groups working with thém estimate they take away 6,000 tonnes a day. Most ends up in Manshiyat Nasser, the eastern hillside sium where they live. The zabaleen used to seil off the recyclables and feed food waste about 60 per cent of the totai to their pigs.
Eighty per cent of the rubbish was put to use. owever the government’s decision to culi the animale this year foliowing news of ari international outbreak of swlne flu has upset the system. After the pigs were killed, the rubbish became a plague, says Ishaaq Mikhaii, head of the Rubbish Coliectors’ Association. Some zabaleen bought cows and goats instead but the pigs were invaluable: they reproduced a iot and the farmers would slaughter them to raise money. e says incomes have been cut in half. Recently, waste piled up in several neighbourhoods because of the zabaieen’s reiuctance to move organic matter and a strike by a company the government had contracted for rubbish collection.
I don’t think anyone appreciated what service the zabaleen were performing for the city at no expense at all, says Syada Greiss, an MP and chairwoman of the Association for Protection of the Environment. She criticises the decision to hill Egypt’s 200,000 pigs against the reeommendations of world health officials. The zabaleen want the government to follow through on a promise to aliocate iand outside the city for them to farm pigs using imported animals. This world enable them to uve in more sanitary conditions and continue maleing a business out of recycling. lf honseholds also began to separate food from non-organic waste the whole process world become more etticient. owever, while many Egyptians suffer the effects of an unclean or unsafe environment, campaigners say a green movement that wouid change patterns of behaviour has yet to take hold. We desperately need to educate people and create greater awareness, says Ms Greiss. ***