6
Producing Pollution in Egypt
This is the fourth issue of The Economic and Social Rights Series, by the Land Center for Human Rights. It focuses on the production of pollution in Egypt, one of the most important issues to concern public opinion recently in Egypt.
There have been many the
contradicting statements and reports issued on this matter, ensuring that the
question of pollution in Egypt remains secondary and sometimes the in last place
compared to other issues. This is because officials are always trying to remove
the obstacles hindering the flow of incoming investments in various sectors,
even ones that affect the preservation of people's health.
To confront this, this report selects the cement industry in Egypt, showing the amount of pollution produced by this industry, and the governmental directions aimed at it. The report in this respect monitors the legal violations against the environment in Egypt by referring to the violations committed by producers in this industry, against various concerned laws.
The importance of issuing this report at this specific time is linked to several reasons, the most important being:
- Last year there were many events concerning this industry, as during the second half of that year, officials announced that it was urgently necessary to transfer the factories of Helwan cement out of populated areas.
The statements of these officials were retracted in the same month, by the ministers of industry and of the environment, with the justification that transferring them would cost too much for the state to bear.
In addition we observe that the demand that the sector of construction has created recently has caused the cement industry to grow at a rate of 15 percent, according official statistics. This has resulted in the introduction of new companies into this field. There were six companies established in 1997/98 in different provinces, besides the seven other companies that have begun construction in the last few months. As a result it is clear now that the ignoring of the necessary measures in those factories, in order to protect society from pollution, will result in an environmental disaster.
In addition to all these considerations, it is worth mentioning that the Egyptian market witnessed an increase in the price of cement during this year. So that the importance of this report at this time is tied to the crisis caused by the cement price increase, which had caused many arguments and conflicts fought on the pages of newspapers between big officials and unknown parties. These officials assured that the crisis is over and there will be no increase in the price, while the parties who control the market continued to increase the price until a ton of cement cost 270LE in July 1998, compared to 195 LE in January.
On this matter, the Land Center wonders whether there is any connection between what happened in this industry in 1998 (high rates of growth, sale of factories, establishment of new factories, price increases) and the issue of pollution. Are there any connection between all these factors mentioned and the phenomenon of pollution produced by the cement industry?
Here we try to suggest some answers to these questions, in the four parts that constitute the report:
- Introduction to the cement industry in Egypt.
- The governmental directions towards this industry.
- Examples of factories producing pollution in Egypt.
- How can we contribute to resolving the problem of pollution?