‘Black cloud’ choking Egypt
Haze in Cairo spotlights holes in pollution fight
CAIRO A dark cloud once again hangs over Egypt’s capital.
It’s a concentrated layer of pollution that descends every fall, engulfing the city and reminding residents of the government’s inconsistent attempts to fix a problem.
The World Health Organization does not rank cities based on levels of outdoor air pollution, but data it compiled covering 2008-2013 show Cairo is more polluted than Bangkok, Mexico City or Beijing.
Though Cairo’s not as polluted as India’s Delhi or Karachi in Pakistan, it still has a PM2.5 level — a measure of the concentration of fine particles in the air — that is more than seven times higher than WHO guidelines. High levels of PM2.5 have been linked to heart disease and cancer.
“It’s definitely serious,” said Ahmed El-Dorghamy, an energy and environment expert at Cairo’s Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe.
Residents describe the phenomenon that has occurred in Cairo in October and November for over a decade as a black cloud, but El-Dorghamy said it’s really a “brownish cloud.”
“It’s (comprised of ) a mix of volatile organic compounds — carcinogenic substances — sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and also invisible gases like carbon monoxide and other gases,” El-Dorghamy said.
Black or brown, the cloud is the result of a fusion of factors including the seasonal burning of rice straw by farmers seeking to clear their fields, the fumes emitted from Cairo’s notoriously heavy traffic and industrial pollutants.
“It’s like having smokers in a closed room and then you start lowering the ceiling,” El-Dorghamy said.
The cloud doesn’t loom over Cairo alone.
Ahmed Hassan, who lives in the Nile Delta region that fans out north from the capital for more than 100 miles, said he has been experiencing pollution-related illness that affects his throat.
“Look at the sky — I can’t breathe,” said Hassan, a lawyer. “A lot of people are sick — children, old people — all over the place.”
Heart disease, stroke and res- piratory infections are among the top four causes of premature death in Egypt, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, based in Seattle. Though many factors contribute to these disorders, exposure to air pollution can increase risk of heart attack and stroke, the American Heart Association says. Respiratory infections are associated with exposure to pollution.
The poor air quality hasn’t stopped the city from brimming with outdoor activity.
Some, such as the Cairo Runners group, work around it. Runners meet early at the start of every weekend when car congestion is minimal.
“Seven in the morning on Friday is way less polluted than any time during the day, and there is less traffic,” said Mohamed Seif, a member of the group. (The Egyptian weekend runs Friday to Saturday.)
To address the problem, Egyptian authorities monitor emissions in the cement industry and have made waste burning illegal, according to the World Bank. They have invested in infrastructure such as metro lines that could reduce pollution, while natural gas has been widely introduced in the power, industrial, housing and transport sectors.
“In spite of these accomplishments, uncoordinated policies may have, in fact, accentuated the increase in pollution rather than reducing it,” the World Bank said in a report last year.
The report says rice cultivation has been allowed to expand from southern Egypt to districts around Cairo and that poor traffic management combined with limited public transportation has allowed for an abundance of vehicles with diesel engines.
Some say Egypt’s leaders should be doing more to fight the dark cloud.
“It happens every year, and no one takes care of it,” said Mahmoud Farouk, executive director of the Egyptian Center for Public Policy Studies. Ukrainians, has been living without hot water or heat since June, but she insists it’s worth the price for closer integration with Europe. “We want to live free,” she says. “We’re optimistic and we think everything will be good.”
Poroshenko called for Sunday’s parliamentary elections to boost ties with the West and push through a modernization plan. Some opinion polls show his party will do well enough to let him form a new government without other parties.
The ballot culminates a process sparked by February’s ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, who sought to move Ukraine closer to Russia. The gas crisis illustrates Ukraine’s dependence, as well as its determination, to break free from the powerful country next door.
Russia is a major supplier of gas to Ukraine and raised prices after Ukraine rejected Russia’s offer to continue providing cheap gas if it reneged on a deal to pursue closer ties with the European Union. That’s why Borispolets has been heating a large pot of water over her kitchen stove, and carrying it to the bathtub to wash.