CAIRO may well have one of the highest air pollution rates in the world. The smog is almost palpable: a thick pall hangs over the city's industrial areas, while traffic jams are almost hidden behind voluminous black clouds of smoke.
Environment Law 4/1994 aimed to address the problem of air, water and soil pollution -- on paper, at least. Implementation has been more difficult, not least because officials responsible for enforcing the law are not always fully acquainted with the small print. In an effort to remedy this problem, the Cairo Air Improvement Project (CAIP) last week organised a workshop titled "Introduction to Environment Law 4/1994". The project is administered by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Authority (EEAA), and is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Participants included officials in charge of implementing the environment laws from the governorates of Cairo, Qalyubiya and Giza. The objective was to clarify the programme for combating pollution from lead foundries, in compliance with Law 4 and its executive regulations, to enable environmental inspectors to implement the law with increased efficiency and awareness.
The Environment Law is not the first of its kind. Penal Law 58/1938 criminalised negligence in cleaning and repairing chimneys and furnaces. The law also provided for the punishment of anyone who misuses the Nile. Several other laws addressed pollution, but in a piecemeal manner. Law 45/1949 provided for the regulation of noise. Law 38/1967 covered public cleanliness. Law 57/1980 arranged for the clearance of ditches and swamps, and prohibited digging works. Law 52/1981 dealt with protection from the harm caused by smokers. Law 48/1982, among the most important piece of legislation in this respect, included provisions for the protection of waterways from pollution.
Legal counselor Mohamed El-Guindi noted that Law 4, which unifies and adds to these laws, is proof of the state's concern for the environment, and for the protection of natural resources. It includes binding regulations on individual and group behaviour. The law also set up an environmental inspection authority to monitor violations, besides defining the conditions that industrial establishments are required to meet.
Shubra Al-Kheima is one of the most polluted areas of Greater Cairo. Noxious fumes have reached saturation point there. Now, a martial decree has been issued prohibiting the construction of new factories there, and forbidding the burning of refuse. Exhaust fumes from vehicles are also being controlled. El-Guindi explained that a draft resolution will be issued shortly by the interior minister fixing the percentage of exhaust fumes authorised for motor vehicles in the governorate of Cairo. Other governorates will be granted a maximum moratorium of one year to get exhaust fumes under control.
The implementation of the law, of course, relies a good deal on cooperation at the popular level. Legislators and decision-makers hope that private citizens and associations concerned with the protection of the environment will report violations, and even take offenders to court. Local government officials will also be called upon to enforce the law.
The head of Shubra Al-Kheima's Local Government Council, Mustafa El-Mahroudi, wondered whether violators are in fact fully aware of the penalties imposed by the law. To date, 48 drivers have been fined a total of LE4,000 for littering in that area. Their vehicles were also confiscated and taken over by the local council for three months.
Zeinab Safar, the chief counselor of CAIP, noted that the programme for combating lead pollution aims to support the government work-plan designed to reduce emissions from lead foundries, and to provide lead-free gas in Egypt. This session of the workshop was the second of its kind. The first addressed foundry owners and attempted to acquaint them with lead's impact on human health. Safar explained that the foundries produce 40,000 to 55,000 tons of lead annually. Many owners, Safar noted, are willing to move their foundries out of the residential areas and apply more efficient technology.
Officials from the Ministry of Industry visited foundries in Greater Cairo, as well as the new site in Qattamiya, where the foundries will be moved. The 250 feddans are 16km from Cairo.
In Qalyubiya, five feddans close to an industrial waste pit in the Abu Zaabal area have been allocated to the foundries which will be moved from the residential part of the governorate. Safar said CAIP will also supply the governorate with technical support to improve equipment and management. The foundries are to be moved to the new location within two years. A detailed model of a huge private sector foundry equipped with to the latest technology has already been completed.
Lead foundries are always cited as the greatest culprits in air pollution, because they have the most destructive effect on human health. Lead is absorbed by the body through the respiratory organs by inhalation, and through the digestive system with the consumption of food and liquids. It also affects children's mental processes. It is the cause of kidney disease and fertility disorders. Part of CAIP's efforts to address air pollution is the establishment of a link between the different authorities, particularly the EEAA, the governorates, the Local Councils and the Environment Bureaus. The project is based on four principal vectors: the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) for the public transport vehicles; exhaust tests; the programme for combating lead pollution; and air measuring monitors.
With the completion of the lead foundries work-plan under the CAIP, Safar expects the elimination of 95 per cent of lead emissions by the foundries at the targeted sites. The monitoring of emissions will be maintained to ensure adherence to the Environment Law. All lead foundries are to be moved away from densely populated areas within the next five years.
It's a child's world
THE FIRST Arab conference on children and the environment was held last week under the auspices of the Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Nadia Makram Ebeid, with the cooperation of the Arab Organisation for Youth and the Environment (AOYE), the Arab League, and the UN Environment Programme for West Asia.
The supervisor of the ministry's Central Department for Information and Training, Nirvana Khedr, noted that the relation between children and the environment raises several crucial issues. First, we are merely borrowing the environment from future generations. Therefore, we must preserve and protect it. Second, if we are to protect the environment and nature's resources in the future, our first concern should be to educate children today. Third, it is the responsibility of each person concerned with the environment to protect children from pollution.
Children's education starts at home. It is furthered at school, where children are acquainted with nature and the environment through the study of the surrounding community. Social clubs, the library, houses of worship as well as information and media centres all complete this task.
AOYE Chairman Emad Adli emphasised the importance of children's role in protecting the environment. Organisations that work with children, he added, must participate in various environmental activities, so as to enhance children's general awareness.
Adli noted that an Environmental Charter of Principles for the Arab Child has been drawn up. Among its most important principles is the need to acquaint children with natural resources and the means to preserve them. Planting trees, water conservation and rationalising its use, the prevention of air pollution, reducing waste and litter, rationalising the consumption of electricity as well as sorting garbage at the source are direct means by which children can preserve the environment. The reduction of pollution can have a particularly great impact on children, who are the greatest victims of lead pollution, for instance.
Adli also stressed the importance of instilling a civic sense of public property very early on in children's lives and encouraging their participation through awareness-raising campaigns. The AOYE organises lectures in children's libraries, especially during the Reading For All festival held every year.
The AOYE also organised a four-year project for the conservation of potable water. In primary schools, children formed groups of friends who tried to find ways of conserving water. Drawing contests with an environmental theme were held.
The Ministry of the Environment, in cooperation with the Integrated Care Society, has also set up a reading project targeting children, under the auspices of Mrs Mubarak. A special "Green Corner" is found in all Reading for All libraries. This project got off the ground last summer, then branched out.
Training courses for librarians are also being implemented. Khedr explained that the ministry's current agenda focuses on the development of human resources connected with children, namely, the family and teachers.
Alaa Sarhan, counselor to the UNEP's regional director, emphasised children's right to enjoy natural resources while sharing in their development for future generations.
The director of the Technical Department of the Arab Ministerial Council for Environmental Affairs, Fatma El-Mallah, noted that the Arab League participated in celebrations held for Arab Environment Day in 1992 under the title "Children and the Environment". Secrets of the Earth, a book written by a Japanese child named Ika Tsibuta, was also translated. The book deals with environmental problems and the role children can play to help solve them.
The Arab League and the UNEP have also cooperated on two studies. The first concerns the extent of environmental knowledge acquired by primary school children, and includes a list of the concepts that should be applied in school curricula. The second researches preparatory and secondary school students' attitudes toward the environment.
