Plans to build a new fertiliser factory threaten to make a bad environmental situation worse. Pierre Loza reports from Mansoura "Say no to building another fertiliser factory in Talkha." So urged an information brochure distributed by the Mansoura University Centre for Social Services and Environmental Development. It called on the people of Daqahliya governorate to take a unified stand against a project whose environmental cost is just too high: a third fertiliser plant to be established within the fenced factory compound in the town of Talkha, outside Mansoura's city centre. Mansoura University academics have led the campaign to stop the factory management's relentless plans for expansion, ongoing since 1975. The first fertiliser factory in Talkha was a nitrate plant relocated from Suez in the aftermath of the 1967 War, after which production discontinued for several years. Today the 200-feddan compound, occupying one of the Nile Valley's most fertile stretches, comprises a urea production facility established in 1980 as well. "The ammonia discharges have given both my children asthma," Mohamed El- Wakil, a Mansoura University department chairman, explains. "We've suffered from this for 30 years and now they want to build another factory." Nor does El- Wakil's standpoint lack support, whether in academic studies or Egyptian Environmental Authority (EEA) reports: the nitrogen oxide emissions have all too frequently violated even the more lax standards applied to such older plants as those of Talkha (3,000 as opposed to 1,400 milligramme per day). Aside from asthma, this causes chest calcification and lung cancer; nitrogen dioxide, in addition, another by- product of fertiliser production, has often resulted in acid rain, raising nitric concentrations in the drinking water. A 1996 PhD thesis undertaken by Ali Ismail indicated a high incidence of kidney failure and cancer among 217 factory employees and 30 residents of Meit Antar, the village closest to the compound: "exposure to... ammonia and nitrogen oxides have harmful effects on the liver", besides which there is a direct correlation between tumours and exposure to solid pollutants. "It's sad how many of the people I tested have already passed away," Ismail says. "I do believe these deaths were preventable." "All across the world," El-Wakil declaims, "such environmentally blacklisted industries are only ever established 80km away from residential areas. I fail to understand why they are so adamant on building the new plant within the same compound when they have the option of the industrial zone, Kalybshu, a less densely populated area in the north where the environmental cost would be infinitely lower." And that is not to mention fire hazards, an issue the EEA has seldom focussed on: both nitrate- and urea-based fertilisers are highly explosive; and with storage facilities that hold up to 5,000 and 60,000 tonnes of each, respectively, the risk is of catastrophic proportions; one such fire, in 1996, was luckily controlled as the army fire brigades reached the site in time. Yet Abdel-Wadoud El-Zoghbi, EEA representative for Mansoura, believes the factory has cleaned up considerably in recent years: "This year's record is far better than last year's, and we're currently assessing the environmental cost of building a third factory." Nor, he says, is factory waste disposed of in Al-Tawila Canal (which gradually feeds the Nile, affecting drinking water), as El-Wakil claims. He does recommend raising environmental fines (only LE20,000 per offence), but he seems to condone the expansion. For his part factory chairman Ali Ghoneim charges the campaigners with "pure self-interest": "We've spent LE170 million to build ourselves up to environmental standards. People who want us to move to Kalybshu are simply trying to raise the price of land in that area, because they own it." But with one academic allegedly receiving death threats, it is hard to know whom to believe. Tensions rose as campaigners began to question Ghoneim's integrity; the air is thick with rumours. No doubt the factory's presence has negatively impacted agriculture. Mohamed Nasr, one Meit Antar landowner, testifies that it is no longer possible to plant grass alongside the channel: "When grass does grow, the cows don't eat it. This is why farmers in the area only plant dill seed plants, which grow seeds to be replanted elsewhere." Covered in a green mildew-like substance, the channel releases a foul- smelling fume that bothers farmers even more than its appearance: "The smell is strongest at night; when it starts to spread you can hardly breathe," Saad Muwafi, who plants potatoes, lost five feddans- worth of his produce overnight, he says, due to "factory's pollution": "The local committee reported the plants did not die because of any particular disease." Nor is Muwafi the only farmer to file a complaint, but with the local authorities never fulfilling their promises to treat or fill up the channel, farmers are giving up hope already. Chaos overtook a heated conference held in Mansoura last March as the booing of audience members drowned the voices of campaigners discussing the issue, with the result that speakers stepped down from the podium. Yet MP Mohamed Salama, former supporter of Ghoneim, expressed a change of heart, making a point he promised to discuss further in parliament: "I must say that I was strongly against those who opposed building a third fertiliser factory in Talkha. Now I've realised I was deceived -- a third factory here would not definitely be to our benefit." The issue is further compounded by reports of corruption among the factory's company board members. On condition of anonymity, one source submitted a 1998 document to Al-Ahram Weekly that presumes to reveal how the chairman was granted the authority to retrieve funds "for marketing purposes" without procedural cover. Yet four months after the municipal council voted against the project, and notwithstanding People's Assembly debates on the issue, it is still not known what will become of it. For his part Ghoneim insists the management will "continue fighting to build the factory" within the complex -- a strategy that reduces the cost of the project by 25 per cent since it allows the management to make use of existing infrastructure. To cost 250 million euros and provide 1,000 new jobs, the project is enormously tempting from a financial point of view. Yet, critics say, it puts the health and well-being of many citizens of Mansoura in grave danger. Worth noting, in the end, that a decision made today will seal the destiny of the area for years to come. Nasr remembers Al-Tawila of his childhood with fairytale- like nostalgia -- "we used to go fishing there," -- a sentiment that, 10 or 20 years from now, may well accompany any memory of Meit Antar, or the entire municipality of Talkha.
