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LCHR warns of looming environmental catastrophe in 10th of Ramadan City, asking:
Who is protecting laborers, inhabitants, and environment minister from factory owners’ violations?
The industrial hub of 10th of Ramdan established in early 1970s. It developed steadily as the government offered many exemptions and incentives for investors to establish their businesses there.
As a part of its activities Land Center for Human Rights, has recently conducted a study to probe various conditions in the city, especially the environmental ones. It is noticeable, through the study, that investors in the 10th of Ramadan City are totally distinguished than their counterparts in any other industrial site. They are exempted from many taxes, less adhering to environment protection legislation, and not applying any of occupational safety measures. In addition, labors Law No. 137 of 1981 is not fully applied in most of the city installations.
The government has exerted great efforts to develop this city since it established in 1970s. It has provided its investors with all necessary utilities for their productions. It also exempted them from many obligations that being imposed on other investors at different parts of the country.
Nevertheless, despite that all, the Egyptian government seems to have intentionally ignoring the fact that the city is now representing a worse example for the environmental pollution. It is also expressing the worst example for violating of labor rights and freedom of syndicate activity. In addition, the city 150,000 populations are denied the freedom to form their own civil work associations. That besides, the repeatedly violating of laws and other environmental regulations issued by the minister of environmental affairs.
So, Land Center has decided to address this topic to provide an answer for a question aching many people: Why this city in particular stands as an example for all sorts of awful things?
To provide an answer for this question, We therefore selected the issue of environmental pollution to make an introduction to address the whole matter.
The fact is that, this city is housing many factories and workshops that emitting huge quantities of its polluted gases and dusts. These produced harmful materials, undoubtedly affect the life of the thousands of the city inhabitants and workers. Moreover, it noticed that the steady expansion in the city industrial activity is always accompanying with an increase in degree of pollution. That in first places attributes to lack of applying environment protection measures at these newly expansions. However, the most irritated problem is that all these violations happen without being met with a serious attempt from any one to stop this pollution or dealing with it. That with the exception of some occasional visits being staged by the minister during which she issues many orders that always ignored by the factories owners.
The report concluded on this study shows that until September 1998 the total number of functioning factories in 10th of Ramadan City was 917 factories with total investment cost of more than LE 15 billion. It adds that their overall value of production reached LE 13,5 billion and constitutes about 20 % of Egypt’s overall export. Concerning the city manpower, the report stated that there were 129,000 appointed laborers working at the city’s various installations. That in addition to another 50,000 casual laborers who make the overall number of laborers in the city 200,000 laborers.
Ironically, all those workers daily expose to polluted air, and inhale huge quantities of harmful gases and dusts that emitting from the city’s factories. That is of course besides the city soaring problem of industrial drainage.
The report, also points to the main industries that pollute the environment of 10th of Ramadan City. It says that under this category of the environment unfriendly industries, we found those of building materials, metallurgical and mechanical, chemical and pharmaceutical and, plastic industry.
About Building materials industry: The report says, that there were 48 industrial installations working in this sector at the city. Those are for producing cement, cement products, marble, granite, and ceramic. According to the report all those industries are not environment friendly ones as they produce substantial quantities of harmful dusts. That is besides other solid waste materials that constitute a major problem for the owner of these industries.
The report says that according to the official records the total number of workers in this industry is 11,025 laborers, besides another 5,000 work as casual laborers. This meant that there are almost 2,000 laborers in this industry being exposing daily for the harmful dusts emitting from their works. The report adds that these laborers are unfortunate as the ministry of manpower exempts the factories that its staff is less than 50 laborers from having an occupational safety committee. Why that separation between various factories on its staff volume basis, no body knows, despite the fact laborers are the ones to pay its cost, the report comments.
Regrettably, the report affirms that 90% of these industry factories have less than 50 laborers, which means that 20.000 laborers in this sector are not having any occupational safety committees.
Metallurgical and mechanical industries: The report says under this kind of works there are 55 factories in the city deal with metallurgical works, tools manufacturing, and mechanical equipment. They staffed with about 4,000 appointed laborers and unknown number of casual laborers whom their percentage was put at 20% of the total number of laborers in this sector. The nature of work activity of these factories mainly painting, shaping, forming, and malting of various metals as steel, aluminum, and lead.
Some of this sector’s laborers also have no occupational safety committees, as their factory staff is less than 50 laborers. Only 15 out of 55 factory were found to have such committees, the report says. That also means that there are 3,000 laborers of more than 40 factory in that city working without any protection against work hazards at their workplaces. They also work without any commitment from the side of their work masters to apply industrial safety measures to protect them in case of any emergencies.
Chemical and pharmaceutical industries: This sector includes 57 industrial institutions and the workers in these industries are about 4,000. According to the report, all the waste materials result from this industry pollute the area’s water, soil, and air. However, the lamentable fact about this industry is that many of the harmful gases and solid waste materials produced from this industry are not easily decompose and could cause serious diseases if not treated.
Plastic industry: The total number of factories work in this industry is 102 at an investment cost of LE 1,5 billion. They have a staff of about 10,000 appointed laborers plus the daily pay and temporary laborers. The main problem of this industry represents in the difficulty in getting rid of their factories waste materials. They are currently using very primitive ways to do that, which instead increase level of pollution at the area.
The report then handles situations of the work environment under which the laborers of the 10th of Ramadan City are serving their works. It, therefore, focus on work environment regulations included in the proposed program of the Authority of Environmental Affairs. As the program has designed to improving work environment, it has conditioned the readjustment of current environment situations at the city industrial installations within a defined period. Among these readjustment regulations were; firstly readjustment of factors the heating and noisy causes in workplaces during a period ends 31/ 12/98. Secondly, readjustment of situations within workplaces that cause emitting of harmful elements affecting work environment and the minister set 31/3/99 as a deadline.
However, the report indicates that even after all that the minister of environmental affairs affirmed that there are still 100 factories in the city not yet readjusted their environmental situations. She added that 10 of these factories put under strict supervision due to their serious environmental situations, the report says. It added that the minister was not totally satisfying about the situations in Wadi El-Nil for metallurgical industries company and the Arab factory for Iron.
The report, also affirms that some owners of the factories, which not yet adjusted their situations, are defying article No 115 of Labor law any 137 of 1981. This article stipulates that each work installation owner must provide all possible means of occupational health and safety facilities at the workplace. That should be made in a way allows the effective avoidance of dangers that might occurred at the work site.
Article No 115 of Labor, law any 137 for 1981, caters for defining all sort of work hazards such as the mechanical, natural chemical and negative dangers. Under the mechanical kind of hazards, it stipulates that it includes all kind of harm result from the collision between a labor body and any solid object in installation. Such dangers are much frequent in building industry, operating of mechanical equipment, means of transports, and that result from building collapse. Natural work hazards, according to this law, are including all factors that would affect the safety and health of the labor. That includes excessive exposure to temperature, humidity, cold, electricity, lighting, noisy, harm radiation, vibrations, increasing, or decreasing in atmospheric pressure and explosions. Chemical hazards identified by the law to include any kind of harm result from using chemical substances or leakage of any of these materials at the surrounding environment such as gases, vapors, or dusts. It also includes other harm liquids found in work environment and fires. Finally, the law article outlines the negatives work hazards to be that occurred due to lack of first aid facilities or better feeding for laborers or deficiency of cleanliness means at the workplace.
However, legislator gave minister for manpower the freedom to determine obligations and other necessary precaution measures needed for avoiding work risks and hazards. The minister of manpower would later issue a decree to this affect after making consulting both of health and populations ministers.
Land center' report, sees it is of much important that minister of social affairs and environment also consulted in such issue. That for being the two ministries responsible for laborers health and safety. In this respect the report says that environment law No 43 obliging any public facility owner to take necessary measures and precautions to avoid the leakage of any pollutants to its air, excepted within the permitted limits. Also article No 45 of the same law conditioned that public places either covered or semi covered ones must have sufficient ventilation facilities that suit its sizes, occupancy levels and the kind of activity it perform. This ventilation method has to guarantee the circulation of air and preserves its purity at reasonable temperature.
However, the report affirms that must of the factory owners in 10th of Ramadann City are not adhering to these articles of the law. They instead belittled the law and efforts of the environmental affairs authority’s officials who are hardly trying to apply the law. The report in other hand, assures that reducing of penalties against offenders of this law is one of factors led generally to complicating the pollution problem. Here it cites that fines in such offences are between LE 1000 to 20,000 and only reach to imprisonment term with a fine in case the offence was repeated. As the report states, such penalties are not always applicable to owners of factories, especially those own giant ones. For this reason, the report says we get many of this people not respecting these laws and even the minister’s orders. It reached to extend that they intentionally close their factories in the days the minister set to inspect their installations.
To that, the report tries to come out with some recommendations to overcome this thorny issue. It therefore, suggests that since the best way to reduce work safety violations is to avoid them from the very beginning, owners of factories are requested to apply all necessary protective measures. Although it might necessitate the introduction of many changes to the industrial operation itself, but the present environmental and economic demands urging that. Such process may include introducing of some changes to designs of equipment at certain factories. It may also necessitate rearranging of production procedures of others, which would help reducing the volume of undesirable waste materials or avoid the use of certain inputs that cause having such harmful substances.
The report also recommends redeveloping of the industrial process at some factories from the very beginning or upgrading of their products’ standard to minimize the volume of the waste.
Having a strategy for protection against work hazards is highly recommended by the report. Such strategy would help reduce to minimum the number of violations, as it would stress the importance of recycling of waste materials resulting from the industrial operation itself or others.
The report also recommends the chemical, physical, biological treatment of the waste materials in case avoiding producing them from the beginning was impossible, or means to reducing them to minimum were not available. Heavy waste material could be getting rid of them at later stages of the treatment process though some way as fixation, equalization, evaporation, or firing.
To this end, Land Center sees that the new ‘ideal’ city has became a worse example for air, water and soil pollution, which definitely would harms the health of it’s laborers and inhabitants. It also sees that infringing of environmental laws by the city’s factories owners and their defiance of decrees of the minister of environmental affairs would led to an environmental catastrophe at this area.
Finally Land Center calls upon all officials concerned, members of People’s Assembly, Prime Minister, concerned ministers to cooperate with the Authority of Environmental Affairs enforce the law at this area. All what needed is to enable the authority oblige the factories owners affix to their facilities pollution reduction newly designed systems. The Center in doing that hoping to avoid having another Helwan in the area of 10th of Ramadan City. That is of course for the sake of the city inhabitants’ safety and health and for the future of our country generations.