Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad said on Monday that the procedures for countering air pollution will not be limited in certain times, but will last over the whole year in cooperation with other ministries and institutions.
In a press conference for announcing the ministry’s plan for countering the black clouds in 2018, Fouad explained that despite the decrease in cultivated land of rice this year, the mission for countering air pollution is not easy as burning the rice straw is not the only reason for the black clouds phenomena, but there are additional reasons, such as the self-ignition of the random dumps and the emissions of the industrial institutions and vehicles exhausts.
Egypt faces the black clouds every year following the season of harvesting rice, in the summer months. The black cloud is a result of burning huge amounts of rice straw in the cultivated land in the Nile Delta.
The plan includes mutual procedures with other concerned institutions and ministries that will last over the whole year to counter all forms of pollution.
Regarding the random dumps, the minister said that her ministry has a plan for cooperation with local administrations and governorates to record the repetitive self-ignition dumps and to counter them.
Fouad also added that the ministry has instruments for monitoring vehicles’ exhausts, as well as working on decreasing the emissions of industrial institutions, saying that developing charcoal mines is an example of the success of the ministry.
The World Health Organisation report indicates that air pollution was responsible for the death of over 43,000 people in Egypt in 2012. A recent report for the United Nations Environment Programme in December, pointed out that rates of respiratory diseases have increased, adding to the burden on the state’s already-ailing hospitals.
Citing the World Bank, the report indicates that the Egyptian economy is taking a pummelling, with poor air quality knocking off at least one percent of gross domestic product every year.
Egypt’s Ministry of Environment also warned in a recent report that the percentage of air pollution has increased in Egypt over the permitted limits, reaching 81% particularly from 2014-2017.