Chinese green AT THE WORLD Environment Day celebrations on 5 June, Minister of Environment Maged George announced that the ministry will sign an artificial rain collaboration protocol with the Chinese government. The protocol aims at consolidating the efforts of both countries in several fields. The Chinese minister of environment is to visit Egypt at some point in the next few months to finalise the agreement, while a joint delegation representing both governments visited local forests to plant new trees. The Chinese ambassador also donated equipment in the service of forestry efforts at Al-Sadat City. The latter programme, introduced in 1998 on a 500-feddan plot of land, uses treated sewage for irrigation and is expected to produce high-quality timber. Turquoise carnival AT THE RED Sea Governorate Environment Day celebration, Minister Maged George and Governor Saad Abu Reida launched a new environmental awareness campaign. Starting with a cleanup of the southern part of the governorate -- Marsa Alam, Qusseir, Hamata and Gawish Islands as well as Hurghada -- the campaign will involve national protectorate offices, civil institutions and diving centres as well as residents and tourists. All shared in cleaning up and planting trees in Safaga and Ras Ghareb. The celebration was followed by a touring carnival; residents attended a beach concert featuring the well-known singer Hani Shaker and participated in environmental quizzes. A beautiful dump A NEW PHASE of the Ministry of Environment's hazardous waste disposal programme has just commenced at Al-Nasseriya, Alexandria. In its trial phase the sanitary dump has, in a little more than six months, received 600.68 tonnes of waste from 14 companies. The project is a joint initiative of the ministry and the Finnish government (by the end they will have contributed, respectively, LE5 million and three million euros). Its second phase (October 2003-October 2006), providing for, among other things, a physiochemical compound waste treatment unit, cost 1,911,000 euros. The present phase will also offer unit members training. A sulphurous dream THE MINISTRY of Environment laid the foundations of the liquid waste treatment project at Amisal company in Fayoum -- a process that will involve, in addition to waste treatment, the extraction of magnesium sulphate. Of the ministry's LE105 million conservation fund, supported by the German Construction Bank, the project will use up LE15.8 million. To open in December 2007, the project is a step forward in land reclamation and fertiliser production; its annual profit is estimated at LE20.6 million. Resurrection of Boulaq THE MINISTRY of Planning launched a participatory development project in the Abu Katadda district, Boulaq Al-Dakrour. "Five million euros have been allocated to improving living standards in Boulaq Al-Dakrour," Giza Governor Fathi Saad announced last week. Different social sectors are expected to participate in the project, which should be replicated in Boulaq's six remaining districts. "The programme," Khaled Abdel-Halim, project director, announced, "will introduce a unit for policy-making, a fund to support local initiatives, and a participatory development programme in Manshiat Nasser." The German Agency for Technical Cooperation and the German Construction Bank, he added, are providing financial and technical assistance. "In its initial phase, from 2004 to 2006," Shokri Hussein, the project's public participatory counsellor, explained, "the project, with much public participation, will introduce a detailed plan of Boulaq, allocating unused space to various environmental activities."
