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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Lifting the veil of smog
By Mahmoud Bakr
Environmental Affairs Minister Nadia Makram Ebeid cancelled all engagements, including a trip to Bonn to attend the International Conference on Climate Changes, in order to concentrate her attention on finding the causes for, and hopefully to dispel, the suffocating black cloud that has shrouded Cairo.
To this end she has since made a number of inspection tours as well as presiding over an operations room set up at the ministry, where citizens' reports, data from the meteorological stations and forecast bulletins are received.
What was your immediate reaction when you learned of the 'smoke cloud' phenomenon?
To discover the real causes which led to the formation of the 'cloud' over Greater Cairo and its surroundings. Accompanied by Minister of Transport Ibrahim El-Demeiry, I made a bird's eye-view tour of the area in a helicopter provided by Defence Minister Field-Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.
What was the outcome?
We found several factors to be concomitantly responsible. Some of these are recurring problems, such as the spontaneous combustion emissions from garbage collection spots around Cairo. Others are seasonal, such as the farmers' burning debris at the end of the rice harvesting season.
Such behaviour, combined with unusual weather conditions, helped the cloud to remain hanging over Cairo. That's the combination of effects that was felt by people.
What weather factors are you referring to?
A front moving along the northern parts of the country pushed the vapour-laden air towards the Delta and Cairo. This formed an isolating layer in the air, preventing circulation and the dispersal of polluted particles to higher atmospheric levels, and coincided with a lowering of wind speeds.
All of these factors led to an increased rate of polluted smoke in the air, which ultimately appeared as it did during the last two weeks.
Have any measures been taken to restrict the recurrence of this phenomenon?
In the course of my inspection tours, three lead foundries have been shut down in El-Sharabiya. Twenty-five depots used for storage of coal-tarred sack cloth, as well as all lime-kilns, in addition to 150 pottery workshops and quarries in Old Cairo have been shut down. All their furnaces function by using fuel that violates the provisions of the environment law.
In Qattamiya 25 lime kilns using old car tyres for fuel were closed for good. None of these furnaces will be allowed to resume their work unless they convert to clean technology.
For our part, we are prepared to assist their owners by providing them with loans from the Social Development Fund.
Have these measures led to any tangible results?
Yes indeed! For instance, if you go now to Qattameya, you will notice, visibly, the non-existence of smog. This means that air pollution in that region has been contained.
Apart from that, we have been assured that farmers will collect the rice straw without burning it. This was achieved through our contact with the relevant governors, not to mention implementing the provisions of Environment Law No 4 of 1994 that prohibit open-fire burning.
Will that cloud lead to any revision of the ministry's working plan?
We have set our priorities at the ministry regarding some of the more urgent problems. We also have a work plan for the garbage disposal problem which is very definitely one of those priorities. It has to be said, though, that this phenomenon has prodded us to concentrate even more urgently on garbage disposal in the forthcoming phase.
As a ministry, of course, our role requires us to coordinate with all other ministries and governorates. Environmental problems are the responsibility of several ministries. We are all responsible for them. None can shirk that responsibility.
Foremost, however, comes our chief objective, which is public health and the maintenance of a clean environment.
