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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 April 2000 Issue No. 478 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 April 2000 Issue No. 478
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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It is 9.00am and Amr Kamal, a taxi driver from Imbaba, is tenth in line, waiting to fill up his car at the station on Galaa Square in Doqqi. It will take him at least 15 minutes all in all. But it's worth the wait, he reckons.
'photo: Khaled El-Fiqi
Red menace, farewell
You know you've lived in Cairo too long when you start thinking that the phrase "a breath of fresh air" means a whiff of condensed air freshener. One way to reduce air pollution in the city is by using condensed natural gas. Amina Elbendary unwraps an Earth Day surprise present to Cairenes
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters If you've ever passed by Galaa Square, you may have wondered why there was such a long queue of taxis waiting. Well, these taxis aren't filling up on regular petrol. They're using condensed natural gas (CNG). Natural gas is a clean, environmentally friendly fuel of which Egypt has large reserves (estimated at 40 trillion cubic feet in 1999 -- enough to last another hundred years, even if no new reserves are discovered). It therefore makes environmental, economic as well as strategic sense to utilise these reserves nationally. One such way is by using it in condensed form to fuel vehicles. Since none of the vehicles available on the Egyptian market are equipped to operate on CNG, an additional kit is added to the carburettor allowing the engine to work on either regular petrol or CNG. Thus, the converted vehicle still retains the ability to operate on petrol. This added kit is not yet manufactured locally but is imported. The adjustment costs LE5,000; LE3,000 for the kit including a regulator and the various accessories and LE2,000 for the tank. The conversion is carried out by two gas companies, Gastec and Cargas and the sum can be paid in 18 instalments.
Amr has to wait in a long queue, and he will have to make this trip once more in the afternoon. The queue is long because of the scarcity of gas stations that sell CNG. Each converted car is equipped with two cylinders of a 20 cubic metre capacity each. A cubic metre of CNG covers as many kilometres as a litre of petrol. Thus, with a capacity of 40 cubic metres of CNG, Amr needs to fill up at least twice a day. It is worth the effort and the wait, though, because CNG is cheaper than petrol. A cubic metre of CNG is sold at 45 piastres while a litre of petrol costs LE1. It is the money saved from the price difference that allows Amr and others to pay the instalments and still make some extra profit.
Indeed, according to Mukhtar Abdel-Messih, marketing manager of Gastec, 7,500 of the 9,000 vehicles adjusted by his company since 1997 are taxis. The reason for this, he argues, is that there is a stronger economic incentive for taxis to invest in CNG. Because an average taxi covers more kilometres a month than a private car, the amount of money saved on using CNG is larger, thus creating a more powerful incentive. So, if you pay approximately LE150 a month on petrol, you can pay LE67.5 on CNG -- saving LE82.5 a month. However, at such a low consumption rate, by the time your savings make up for you initial LE5,000 investment, it will be time to change the car altogether! Besides, the CNG cylinders are installed in the trunk of the car, using up a third of its space, which is an inconvenience if you use your car on out-of-town trips and need to store luggage.
Amr wishes there were more CNG stations because their geographical distribution and scarcity means that he wastes time getting to a convenient station and more time getting out. Gastec and Cargas currently operate 34 stations selling CNG. It is apparent, however, that no real coordination exists between the involved authorities in deciding the geographical distribution of stations. More than half of the stations are in Cairo, predictably enough. Among these, it is common to find stations operated by the two competing companies right next to each other.
Amr doesn't regret making the decision or the investment, though, because it saves good money, especially that he still has instalments to pay on the purchase of the taxi itself. Unlike him, however, Khaled Ibrahim, another taxi driver, regrets his decision to convert his car to CNG. It's true that it saves money but it also has tiresome side effects, including breakdowns in the engine. CNG, he claims, causes corrosion of the cylinder, and makes the car slow to start up. And, although he doesn't regret having made the conversion, Adel Salama adds that CNG also makes the car slow to achieve its full acceleration curve, and spoils the battery.
Indeed, there is a popular perception that CNG spoils the engine. Abdel-Messih vehemently denies these as vicious rumours spread by envious mechanics. Why? Because in fact, the opposite is true. CNG is a clean fuel and thus protects the engine, which keeps it from breaking down, which means less work for mechanics. If anything, he argues, converting to CNG also saves maintenance expenses. The voice of experience, Amr, agrees. But he does not advise those whose cars are already old to convert to CNG. Old engines break down anyway, he explains.
While I was talking to the taxi drivers at the station, an angry man came up. He didn't quite know at first whether I was a reporter or a researcher doing some kind of poll. Nor did he give me time to explain, or make a formal introduction, really. My notebook and pen encouraged him to vent his anger and his complaints: I might tell his story. You see, he had an accident three months ago and it cost a lot to repair the taxi. He still hasn't paid off the mechanic. And, consequently, he hasn't paid the conversion instalment in three months either. He was obviously in some kind of trouble with the company. His story is a different one from ours here, that of the millions of Egyptians living from hand to mouth, striving to make both ends meet. Still, it points to the absence of any government incentives to promote CNG. Unlike the United Kingdom, for instance, Egypt offers no grants or tax breaks to encourage people to make this environmentally friendly investment.
As mentioned, around 80 per cent of the vehicles converted to CNG so far have been taxis. It doesn't make economic sense to convert buses since most of them operate on diesel, which is sold at 50 piastres a litre. However, as anyone who's lived in Cairo long enough must realise, buses -- especially public buses -- are environmental hazards on wheels. The unsightly spiral of black smoke coming out of the traditional Cairene red bus is all too familiar to all of us. Luckily, the government has announced a new plan to replace these red menaces with environmentally-friendly CNG operated buses.
The pilot project involves 50 new buses to be released on 23 April on the occasion of Earth Day. According to Abdel-Wahab Barakat, CNG executive director at the Organisation of Energy Planning (OEP), the project is financed by both the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which contributed $27 million to pay for the chassis, and the Egyptian government, which contributed $8.2 million to cover the cost of the bodies of the buses. The Cairo Air Improvement Project (CAIP), which is funded by USAID and implemented in partnership with the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) and the OEP, is assisting the project team in overcoming design and mechanical hurdles as well as organising training and orientation sessions for all those involved in operating and maintaining the buses.
According to Reda Bata, CNG technical manager at CAIP, the buses use American Cummins engines, which are designed to work specifically on CNG. These as well as the chassis have been imported from the US. The bodies of the buses are built by Nasr Company (NASCO) in Helwan. This is the first time that such buses are built in Egypt. The few CNG buses already on the streets are fully imported. Of the 50 new buses, half will be operated by the Greater Cairo Bus Company (GCBC) and the other half by the Cairo Traffic Authority (CTA). Each bus is designed to carry eight fuel cylinders. These, explains Bata, allow the bus to cover 350km a day without needing to go back to the garage to refuel. Gastec and Cargas have built special stations for CNG refuelling at GCBC and CTA garages.
A good number of public transport vehicles are minibuses. Unfortunately, however, the design of CNG operated minibuses is still in process. Barakat explains that the main mechanical hurdle is to fit each minibus with enough cylinders to allow it to cover the required 350km without refuelling (which would require an extra trip back to the garage).
Of course, if the pilot project for public buses works smoothly and the 50 buses prove practical to maintain, the project will be extended to include more vehicles.
One of the ideas currently under study is that of converting the existing fleet of buses to CNG. But whether this will make economic sense and be practical remains to be decided.
So far, the incentive behind private decisions to convert vehicles to CNG has been purely economic. None of the random taxi drivers I talked to referred to the environmental benefits of CNG as being a factor in their decisions. In fact, there is still relatively limited awareness of the whole project, which has had tragic ramifications. Many owners of microbuses have converted their vehicles to CNG. However, for some obscure reason -- perhaps because CNG stations are few and widely dispersed -- several drivers resorted to using butane bottles instead of refuelling properly. This has led to a few extremely tragic accidents on the road.
On the other hand, environmental awareness seems to be one of the decisive factors behind the government's pilot-project of CNG operated buses. It is very encouraging that the government is taking the initiative on this by beginning with public buses. Such steps are crucial to promoting environmental awareness in Egyptian society -- an awareness we can no longer afford to dispense with.
Hopefully, one day, all Egyptian public buses will be operated by clean environmentally-friendly CNG. One feels energised just thinking of the improvement in air quality this would engender! For the time being, however, don't breathe too deep...
