Agence France-Presse CAIRO: For the seventh year running, a mysterious black cloud has appeared over Cairo, triggering serious health concerns for the polluted city s 16 million residents. Emissions of nitrogen dioxide, which cause serious health risks above certain levels, have reached record heights in the city, from the banks of the Nile, past the industrial suburbs of the delta and even in the desert areas. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that presence of more than 200 mg of nitrogen dioxide in the air is a great health risk. But in Egypt, the levels have reached as high as 305 mg in the Cairo district of Qolali and 482 mg in Giza. Worse still, the levels of the potentially toxic gas have soared to a staggering 700 mg in the northern city of Qaha, in the industrial zone of Qaliubiyah. Cairo has one of the highest rates of pollution, ten times higher than global indicators defined by the WHO in October, making it one of the most polluted cities in the world together with Karachi, New Delhi, Beijing, Kathmandu and Lima. As in previous years, the authorities have admitted not knowing the exact causes of the black cloud, and have offered a variety of possible causes including the city s unbridled traffic, the burning of rubbish or of rice hay in the rural areas of the Nile Delta. Environment minister Maged George has accused the local councils of failing to prevent their farmers from burning the hay, the customary method of clearing the way for new crops, as recycling or simply moving the stuff is too expensive. Together with environment minister Amin Abaza, George ordered the collection of 125,000 tons of hay to be compacted, an order which has been plainly ignored. Exhaust fumes from 1.6 million cars, which include some 80,000 beat-up taxis, are also to blame, particularly this year when the black cloud coincided with the month of Ramadan, notorious for its traffic jams, authorities said. And the high concentration of factories, like the cement factories of Helwan and Tebbin in southern Cairo, are also responsible for the surging pollution which kills 5,000 annually in the capital, according to hospital sources. Calculating the risks allows us to conclude that 500,000 Cairenes will develop serious respiratory problems and fatal cancers, in a period of five to 25 years, says Salah Hassanein, an environment professor at Cairo University. The air is also contaminated by the burning of some 12,000 tons of domestic waste, as well as of the mountains of litter dumped in open fields in the suburbs. Experts agree that in addition to an explosive urban population, Cairo suffers from an unfavorable natural environment which reinforces the harm caused by the polluting factors. Very high temperatures, no rain, little wind and sand blowing in from the desert all contribute to turning the overcrowded megalopolis into an urban inferno, something the authorities are increasingly desperate to fight. A series of environmental laws were enacted more than 10 years ago, which include the control of vehicles and industries and fines for those who violate. But there is a difference between writing a law and applying it, says Essam Al-Hinnawy, director of the International Centre for Environment and Development. The situation is getting worse, he says.
