IN the early 1980s, when the Government decided to start rebuilding the country's infrastructure, it gave priority to providing every hamlet nationwide with electricity and potable water. In the meantime, it overlooked sewerage, which should have been expanded at the same time as the water network. The increase in consumption of potable water hasn't been accompanied by the construction of a sound sewage system that would preserve Egypt's rural environment. We are now a decade into the new century, but successive governments have continued to neglect the importance of extending the sewage network nationwide. This omission has led to serious land and water pollution in most rural regions, as a recent report from the State-run Central Agency for Auditing (CAA) notes. According to the CAA's report, only 11 per cent of Egyptian villages have sewage services; the other villages are suffering from polluted ground water and agricultural land. With the recent shortage of potable water in these villages, the farmers are suffering from infectious diseases because they have to use ground water polluted by sewage. The same report issued by this independent supervisory agency also says that sewage from rural regions ends up getting dumped in canals used for irrigation. According to the CAA report, Essaf irrigation canal in Giza governorate receives around 170,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage. The report adds that this canal irrigates a lot of land used to grow fodder for cattle. This means that this polluted canal is irrigating crops being eaten by cattle. Human beings, who consume milk and beef, are ultimately affected too. This environmental disaster shows that successive governments have been wrong to underestimate the importance of extending the sewage network to every parts of the country. Will the Government correct this grave mistake and put more money into upgrading this vital service?
