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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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By Mahmoud Bakr 
Seeing the forest, and the trees
AS THE world marked Environment Day on 5 June. Egypt had its own reason to celebrate: the opening of the LE2 million environmentally friendly solid waste disposal centre in Aswan. Funded by the German GTZ agency, the centre is the only one of its kind in Upper Egypt capable of receiving over 150 tons of waste a day.
Environment Minister Nadia Makram Ebeid, who presided over the opening, was also there for the inauguration of several other projects that spell good news for the country's beleaguered natural resources. Among the many items on the minister's busy agenda were visits to an organic compost production plant, which can produce up to 80 tons of fertiliser a day, and to a sewage recycling centre for floating hotels; waste water from the latter, once filtered, will serve to irrigate a forest of 80,000 trees newly planted throughout the governorate of Aswan.
All these moves will no doubt serve to make Egypt greener -- and, perhaps, to dispell fears that last year's "black cloud" is on the verge of offering a most unwelcome repeat performance.
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