King Maryout, long considered a reference point for fresh air, is suddenly subject to air pollution. Yasmine Fathi reports Among the most beautifully serene residential areas in Alexandria, King Maryout, flanked by granite rock formations, is filled with hilltop villas. It boasts remarkably low humidity and quiet, and had become, for many people, a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city. According to Gihan Zaalouk, executive manager of the Friends of the Environment Association, people sought out King Maryout "in search of peace and quiet, and most importantly fresh air". Indeed the Swiss consul is said to have moved there in the 1960s after doctors recommended the far derelict area for his daughter's asthma, of which she was promptly cured within days of their arrival. The consul consequently built a mansion (later to become the Desert Home Hotel) and settled there; gradually through the 1970s and 1980s, the area was built up, with people sparing neither money nor effort to have homes there, whether they used them as a permanent residence or a summer retreat. "I live in Alexandria, but I'm here every weekend to de-stress; only here do I feel I can breathe." Thus Akef Abdallah, one resident. "It's only 45 minutes away from Alexandria," added Magdi El-Sheikh, another. "So even though it's quiet, you don't feel too isolated. It's the perfect getaway." Yet sadly, for the last decade, a mysterious stench has augured the end of any such perfection; air pollution comes to King Maryout from a range of sources and residents are no longer satisfied. "At one point I thought maybe a cat had died in my garden," complained businessman Mohamed Mahmoud. "Sometimes it smells like a decomposing corpse," law professor Mohamed Abdel-Moneim agreed. "At other times it smells like gas, as if someone forgot to switch off the oven." Yet this is not all. "I find my terrace covered in smog, it's so bad I sometimes have to rewash my laundry," El-Sheikh complained. Others reported a layer of oil covering the surface of their swimming pools. According to Mohamed Borhan, general manager at the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, in the last few years Alexandria's waste and sewage have been released into the King Maryout Lake. Kamal Noweir, professor of occupational hygiene and air pollution at Alexandria University's High Institute of Public Health (HIOPH) adds that Maryout is now threatened by "high traffic density on the Cairo-Alexandria highway; factories in the GAFI free zone, located on 1,353 feddans in close proximity, 29.5km down the highway; and the construction of the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR)". But since only a few dye factories could be contributing to pollution -- most are non-hazardous carpet or clothes factories -- fingers are pointing to MIDOR. Established under Egyptian Investment Law 8/ 1997, the company is located in the Amerya Free Zone, western Alexandria; its shareholders include the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), 78 per cent; Petrojet, 10 per cent; ENPPI, 10 per cent; and the Suez Canal Bank, two per cent. Company chairman Mahmoud Nazeem points up the magnitude of the company's work, a "giant project" contributing some 30 per cent of Egypt's energy needs, yet according to Noweir, this is precisely why it produces significant amounts of air pollutants -- necessary byproducts of oil refining -- including, detrimentally, hydrocarbons. But Nazeem insists that MIDOR, being "the most sophisticated and comprehensive refinery in the Mediterranean basin", is also environmentally friendly -- in accordance with petroleum sector European Investment Bank (EIB) policy -- the latter, from which the company received loans, only lends environmentally friendly projects -- as well as some nine American partners with their own environmental regulations. The refinery, he added, is monitored by Alexandria University's High Institute for Research; and "not once were they able to prove that MIDOR has a negative impact on the environment". Yet Noweir points out that the factory was built prior to environmental Law 4/1994, which requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): "I don't think they had an EIA conducted, or maybe it was conducted but never handed in." According to Nazeem, the refinery was built in 1997, and, an EIA required by the aforementioned bank, was undertaken by WoodWard- Clyde; and its findings indicated that this was the best location for the factory to be built. The criteria for "the optimum location", Noweir counters, relate, rather, to the availability of labour, the proximity of raw material or the market: "It's not the only area where these conditions can be available. Had they moved just 50km further, southwest of Alexandria, there would have been no problem. Why must it be in the middle of a residential area?" Even with the most environmentally friendly technology, air pollutants -- lead, PM10, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide as well as the more common carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, dioxins, hydrogen fluoride, chlorine, benzene -- will still make an impact. MIDOR's two flares, Noweir added, are two low for Maryout, which is located in a depression; yet according to Nazeem the flares are 100m rather than the required 60m above ground, precisely because in building the refinery, Maryout was taken into account; their fires are too weak to be harmful, indeed, according to Nazeem, comparable to oven fires; and, because it sells sulphur at $100 a tonne, the refinery extracts every last vestige of sulphuric compounds. Such logic does not take into account the speed of the air, however, which is often too fast for the fires to be safe. Nor does it explain away the suffering of King Maryout residents. Complaints started coming in from the day the refinery started operating; Nazeem concedes as much, and to appease the residents he agreed to install air pollution monitoring devices on the roofs -- a move he considers unfair as such devices cannot tell where the pollution originates, and much of it, he insists, comes from highway traffic. Yet even so, he says, levels of pollution did not exceed those permitted by law. To regulate emissions, he added, is necessary for the safety of the refinery itself, since in excess gas emissions could well result in fire. But residents remained unconvinced. In 2001 the King Maryout Resident's Association sued the refinery, "a huge monster waving its tail back and forth, destroying everything in the way", according to association chairman Yehia Zahran, whose wife's asthma has worsened as a result of air pollution. Zahran insists that it is the responsibility of the government to protect Maryout, home to half a million residents, 90 per cent of whom are poor: "The government thinks only the rich who can defend themselves live here. Well, it's not true." The refinery, he says, is not only forcing residents out, it is scaring away prospective property buyers: "For example, on Mohamed Rashid Street, the cost of a square metre of land went down from LE500 to LE350." With a court hearing on 25 August, association members are expecting adequate financial compensation -- short of closing down the refinery. Yet MIDOR is not the only culprit -- according to Mohamed Borhan, general manager and coordinator of the Egyptian Investment Agency, indeed, such a campaign is not wholly justified. Factories built in the Max, Dekheila and Amerya in the 1940s, prior to the introduction of environmental laws, are equally to blame: "Amerya specifically and Alexandria in general are the petrochemical centre in Egypt. People always blame MIDOR, but there is absolutely no proof that only MIDOR is the cause." Residents are angry with the government for building factories in a residential area, but Borhan insists that initial plans for Maryout provided for industrialisation as well. It was the influx of wealthy residents that resulted in residential development being much faster than industrial, giving the false impression that Maryout was always residential: "The government warned that any land in Maryout that was not built up would be confiscated -- this sped up residential building even more, and industry came crawling behind." That said, it will take another decade, according to Noweir, to realise the full extent of pollution in Maryout, which might end up like Alexandria -- or even worse. El-Sheikh pointed out that two of his neighbours have already left; he too is seriously considering giving up his Maryout retreat. Yet, as Borhan concludes, none of this takes account of the fact that problems started with the planning, and whatever the case may be for MIDOR and the residents' association, sadly, "it's too late now."
