Egypt: Darkness at noon clouds Cairo skies
Inter Press Service (IPS)/International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ)
Cairo (Egypt) — For the last decade, the autumn skies over Egypt - especially over capital Cairo, have been overshadowed by a thick haze people call "the black cloud".
The black cloud first appeared in 1998, ironically after the creation of Egypt's ministry of environment. Three environment ministers since then have failed to solve the problem, which manifests itself in an ugly pall of haze from dusk until dawn between mid-October and December.
This year has been no exception.
"Black cloud covers Cairo-Alexandria highway...resulting in an increase in the number of road accidents owing to decreased visibility," independent daily Al-Dustour reports. A headline in independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reads: "The black cloud covers Cairo, (as well as urban governorates) Qalioubiya and Helwan."
The cloud has direct health effects. In mid-October, independent weekly Youm Al-Sabaa reported some 300 daily cases of respiratory problems in the Nile delta province Gharbiya as a result of the cloud.
The weekly quoted Mohamed Ibrahim, member of the government-run National Councils of Specialists as saying that the appearance of the black cloud had become "a seasonal phenomenon."
Ever since it first appeared, the government has blamed it on widespread burning of rice straw on the outskirts of Cairo and in the countryside. This is an annual practice among farmers during the autumn rice harvesting season.
Minister of state for environmental affairs Maged George says the burning of rice straw accounts for more than 50 percent of all air pollution in Egypt.
"Farmers aren't adhering to established quotas for rice burning every year," George said. He stressed the need for to financial penalties and even arrest in order to deter anyone who threatened the environment through agricultural or industrial practices.
The governor of Gharbiya province says 1,031 farmers have so far been charged by the authorities with burning excess rice straw. Each faces fines ranging between 5,000 and 100,000 Egyptian pounds (930 to 18,600 dollars) each.
A handful of public-private projects, some in cooperation with international development agencies, have sought to eliminate the practice by encouraging farmers to recycle straw for other uses. Under one such initiative, farmers are paid roughly 45 Egyptian pounds (8.40 dollars) per ton of straw they turn in at designated collection centres. The straw, along with other forms of agricultural waste, is then recycled into fertiliser.
But many experts say such initiatives - while a step in the right direction - are far from adequate.
"There's far more rice straw than can be processed by these recycling facilities, which are only available in three or four provinces," Ahmed Abdel- Wahab, professor of environment at Benha University told IPS. "Meanwhile, the cost of transporting the straw to recycling centres usually ends up being more than what farmers receive for it."
What's more, while environmentalists laud the notion of recycling, they point out that the government tends to focus - unfairly, they say - on the rice- straw burning while overlooking other causes of the cloud.
"The cloud will continue as long as the government insists on ignoring its real causes and concentrates solely on rice farmers as the usual suspects," Ibrahim said. "In greater Cairo at least, vehicle exhaust emissions, garbage burning and industrial pollution constitute the main causes of the phenomenon."
"The government is only focusing on the margins of the problem," Mohamed Nagi, head of the Cairo-based Hapi Centre for Environmental Rights tells IPS. "Most experts agree that the burning of rice straw represents only 12 percent of the cause of the cloud."
Abdel-Wahab agrees that automobile exhaust emissions and industrial pollution from factories are prime causes for the cloud.
"Every day, some two million cars hit the streets of greater Cairo, which is also surrounded by industrial factories, and both of these represent bigger pollutants than the straw burning," he said. "While straw burning certainly contributes to a rising carbon content in the air, vehicle emissions are just as much - if not more - to blame."
"The only reason that the cloud appears in the fall is the natural drop in temperature, which tends to trap accumulated air pollution close to the ground and make it visible to the eye," Abdel-Wahab added. "But the pollution is still there - just not as visible - during the rest of the year."
Nagi says that the rice farmers are being "unfairly accused of responsibility" for the cloud. "The environment ministry has taken some measures against straw burning, but it has failed to address any of the other root causes of the phenomenon."
Nagi pointed to two earlier government decisions - one to seize or fine automobiles with high exhaust emissions, and another to withdraw polluting factories from the capital. "Both of these decisions have yet to be implemented," he said.
Nagi says several government ministries - not just the one for the environment - are responsible for the lapses.
"It's not only the environment ministry that's to blame," he said. "The interior ministry is responsible for automobile emissions, the industry ministry for factories, and the agriculture ministry for farmers."
"The government lacks a consistent policy to fight air pollution in general, not just the black cloud," Nagi added. "Unfortunately, civil society - which should pressure Egyptian officialdom to lay out a clear plan to combat air pollution - has been no less negligent than the government in this regard."
Under such circumstances, local experts fear that the cloud is set to remain a seasonal occurrence for a long time to come.
"The black cloud, which represents a clear violation of the citizen's right to a healthy environment, is likely to stay with us for several more years," said Nagi.
Abdel-Wahab said that without a more effective environmental policy, "the black cloud will be around for at least another 20 years."
