CAIRO: Hamdy El-Sayyed, head of the People's Assembly's (PA) health committee and chairman of the Doctors' Syndicate, criticized the Ministers of Water and Irrigation, Agriculture, Health, Environmental Affairs and Housing for failing to attend a meeting he had called for. On Monday, El-Sayyed called for an urgent PA meeting with the ministers to investigate the use of crude sewage water to irrigate agricultural lands. None of the ministers attended the meeting, and sent representatives instead, El-Sayyed told Daily News Egypt. "We [PA members] denounce that. This [irrigation] is a very important issue and requires the presence of all involved ministers, he added. During the PA meeting, the ministers' representatives said that while there are laws banning irrigation by sewage water, violations occur due to the absence of an authority supervising the laws' execution. Some of the PA's health committee members attributed the rise in cancer and kidney and liver patients to this phenomenon. "We [Egyptians] are launching a war against ourselves and our health, Mamdouh Hosni, deputy head of the PA's industrial committee told the press after the meeting. "This war isn't any less important than any other war Egypt faced in the past years, Hosni added. Saad Al-Gamal, chairman of the Arab affairs' committee said that there were "other investigation requests filed by many PA members over the past nine years about the same issue [sewage irrigation] that the government brushed off. Two months ago, Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Abaza referred several farmers to the general attorney for investigations over using sewage water for irrigation.
