CAIRO - Villagers living close to areas where hospital waste is dumped are threatening to take the law into their own hands to save their lives and their crops. If the district health offices won't take any action, they will. In the village of el-Kaabi, in Fayoum, Upper Egypt, the people have actually carried out their threats. When their appeals for help fell on deaf ears in the district health office, they torched the medical waste dumped near their homes. They also set up vigilante groups to prevent health officials dumping any more hospital garbage there. The villagers were emboldened by the Ministry of Environment, which says that these dumps are a serious environmental threat. The Ministry of Health meekly complains that its meagre budget doesn't allow it to observe international safety and environmental standards in these areas, 'although it would sincerely like to'. El-Kaabi village is home to one of 175 such dumping sites nationwide. Sources in the Ministry of Health estimate that 77 tonnes of hazardous medical waste are churned out daily by private and State-owned medical facilities in Egypt. According to the Ministry of Health, hospitals in Cairo churn out about 16,885kg of medical waste every day and those in Alexandria around 6,267kg. Giza comes next with 5,972kg, followed by el-Qaliubiya (5,082kg), el-Daqahliya (4,664kg), el-Sharqiya (4,334kg), el-Gharbiya (4,225kg), Assiut (3,628kg), el-Minya (3,270kg), el-Menoufiya (2,993kg), el-Beheira (2,646kg), Sohag (2,476kg) and Kafr el-Sheikh (1,932kg). In addition to its offensive smell, medical waste contains deadly viruses and contaminated blood. Many people are also worried about the effect on their children of the poisonous gases emitted when this rubbish is burnt near their homes. Ironically, if they are taken sick, they are taken to the very hospitals responsible for producing all this dangerous waste. One el-Kaabi resident says that the treatment at these hospitals is poor. He adds that the Ministry of Health has chosen the sites for dumping and burning medical waste at random, without taking into account the fact that people might be living nearby. But health officials have told people not to worry, claiming that residents have been exaggerating the extent of the problem. Dr Anwar Ali el-Sueifi, director of the district health office in Fayoum, denies that the smoke emitted when these dumps are set ablaze is carcinogenic, adding that they are strictly supervised.
