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Events List : Event 2005-11-14

Environmental Challenge   VS   Economic Development


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Dinner held in the honor of H.E. Maged George - Minister of State for Environmental Affairs

H.E. Maged George, Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, met with our council members over an early dinner held at Conrad Hotel Ballroom on the 14th of November, 2005 . It was extensively covered by all means of media & press. It was honored by the attendance of H.E. Dr. Essam Sharaf "Minister of Transportation" , H.E. Dr. Osman Mohamed Osman "Minister of Planning" , H.E. Mr. Adly Hussein Governor of Kalyobia, H.E. Dr. Mamdouh El Beltaguy "Ministry of Youth" , H.E. Mr. Martin Kobler "German Ambassador", Mr. Nikolay Rakovskiy "Counselor of Russian Embassy", H.E. Hitler Tantawy "Former Chairman of Administrative Control Authority", H.E. Dr. Ahmed Abdel Fatah Moussa "Minister of Education", H.E. Mr. Fouad Sultan "Former Minister of Tourism", H.E. Gamal El Nazer "Chairman of Egyptian Businessmen Association", and H.E. Philip Mackinnon "Canadian Ambassador", in addition to 200 prominent Members and Guests.

H.E. Maged George, started by thanking Mr. Raslan for his kind invitation then welcomed the audience. H.E. announced that he signed an agreement with the Canadian ambassador, upon request of the Ministry, about the recycling of agricultural wastes . He said that this agreement enabled them to cooperate with the Canadian party. He then paid tribute to the ambassador for his initiative and claimed that it represents a step that will be followed by other contributions as well.

He then highlighted the strong bilateral relation between Canada and Egypt in the field of environment.

H.E. then announced two major projects that are in the process of being implemented by the Ministry.

  1. The first project is related to supporting NGOs by executing projects with them such as the recycling of solid wastes as well as agricultural wastes.
  2. The second one is related to industrial compatibility . The role of the ministry, in cooperation with the Canadian party, is to deal with the problems of big factories working using nitrogenous elements and turning them into factories working with natural gas. This also needs the cooperation of the ministry of petroleum.

 

There are seven main challenges facing the Ministry with regard to environment. These challenges necessitate untraditional means in dealing with them to preserve our natural resources for the generations to follow. The real challenges exist due to the increase in population and lack of natural resources.

To face this issue, they are making bilateral agreements between Egypt and other countries in addition to the cooperation with international organizations concerned with environment like the UNDP. They are also trying to protect Egypt 's wealth as well as natural reserves and this is embedded in the strategies of the ministry.

1) Air pollution
:

Some of the factors affecting it are the following:

    • Major industries pollution concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria .
    • Open burning of wastes.
    • Car exhausts.

The challenge is to set conditions with regards to such industrial activities to limit their effect as well as relocating industries outside the cities and new technologies and gas in cars.

2) Water pollution :

    • We have beaches and coasts facing pollution whether industrial or agricultural. Maritime transportation, oil excavation as well as touristic projects are major sources of pollution.
    • We also have Nile water pollution caused by agricultural and industrial drainage.

Regarding this issue, they started to set policies and join hands with other ministries and other bodies, such as the ministry of housing, ministry of tourism as well as governorates and localities through expanding their services and establishing branches inside each governorate.

3) Natural preserves :

There are numerous biodiversities in the protectorates. They established until now 24 protectorates in the different governorates.

Their main challenge is dealing with natural preserves closely and protecting them against tourism development and its closeness to the areas of the protectorates as well as industrial activities that are threatening these protectorates.

4) Land pollution :

We have in Egypt many types of lands that are affected differently by pollution, such as lands suffering from desertification, desert lands where they use organic fertilizers, and land in the delta where the population is concentrated.

5) Information systems :

They have to provide database for environmental issues and problems because the order of priority of environmental problems differ according to many factors such as climate, population; therefore the database will help in setting policies and in proper planning.

6) Raising environmental awareness :

This will happen by raising awareness in schools and universities as well as raising public awareness through the media, whose role is to address the different people in different manners while taking into consideration the variety in age, gender, and education. In order to avoid many problems.

7) Enhancing environmental laws :

Enhancing human potential and financial potential. Putting the environment in a legislative framework.

 

Some of the questions posed by the audience are:  

1) Black cloud? People gave different interpretation to this phenomenon. H.E. stated that this issue was tackled in depth by different bodies. The findings are the following:

Cars exhaust represents 25 % of the problem. Factories, major and small industries 25 %. Burning of industrial, agricultural, municipal wastes 50 %. This in addition to the geographic place of Cairo as well as its climatic conditions during October and November.

The measures taken to deal with the sources of pollution are the following:

•  Programs to ensure industrial compatibility, relocating factories, using natural gas in cars and public transportation as well as factories.

•  Establishing plants to recycle agricultural wastes, disposing of the municipal waste.

•  Establishing 52 monitoring stations throughout Egypt . They showed the improvement achieved this year.

However, we need 3-5 years to implement such projects and improvement will be with time until we reach total control of such a phenomenon. Implementation needs spending time and money, engaging investors and private sectors, while seeking international support.

2) Bird flue? H.E. claimed that not one case is discovered in Egypt until now and that every ministry is taking measures with regards to bird flu. There is a specialized committee dealing with this issue that gathers reports daily from all ministries.

3) Cars exhaust? H.E. answered that this issue needs more execution of the law of environment in addition to the law of traffic.

* Licenses are issued after inspection.
* Negotiating with Italian parties to install engines working with natural gas.
* Coordinate with Nasser bank to give loans for this purpose.
* This also needs the establishment of networks and stations for natural gas to assimilate such projects.

4) Sustainable development? H.E. announced that they are currently in the process of forming a committee for sustainable development, but they are waiting for the approval of the Prime Minister to move forward.


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