The Egyptian Ministry of Environment launched in September a new electronic system for monitoring waste in some districts of Cairo Governorate. This comes as the first phase of an ambitious project to implement the system in seven governorates. Preliminary testing of the system will take place in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Qena, Assiut, Gharbia, and Kafr El Sheikh, before its implementation in other governorates. According to the ministry, the new system was first tested in Maadi, and the application of the new electronic system will be conducted through the Waste Management Regulatory Authority in cooperation with the private company Environ Adapt, which works in waste management, and is the system developer. The application schedule for the different districts and governorates will be decided by the Ministry of Environment based on the test results. The system is implemented through two mobile applications, the first is “Environ Operations,” which is currently used by the concerned governmental agencies and service providers. It is supported by the company that is contracted to collect the garbage. The second application is “Dawar” mobile app, used by citizens to report the locations of garbage accumulations by taking a phone image of the waste in the street and sending it through the app to the concerned authorities to remove them. Mustafa Khairat, CEO of Environ Adapt, explains to Daily News Egypt that the system is based on four axis, the first is the hotlines and direct telephone complaints of the concerned government agencies (Governorates and the Ministry of Environment), and the second axes is based on the use of the application “Environ Operations”. The concerned governmental agencies, represented by the Waste Management Regulatory Authority at the Ministry of Environment and Governorates, use the application in monitoring, controlling, and communicating with the service provider of garbage collection companies that also use the same application. He added that his company has trained representatives of the concerned governmental agencies and service providers to use the system, which has more than 30 thousand users, and is expected to increase significantly. "After this phase of achieving 80% good communication between regulators and the service provider, we move to the third theme, the Dawar application, which citizens use to report waste places by taking a mobile picture and sending it through the application to the service provider in the region," Khairat explained. He added that the application accurately determines the geographical position of the waste via GPS, as well as the service provider concerned to receive images in each region to deal with the waste in this position. These images reach the regulatory authorities to monitor the extent of commitment of the service provider. After that, the citizen receives a photo from the service provider confirming the removal of waste. The application is also provided with a homepage offering users information about the green economy, sustainability, and environmental initiatives in their area.
