Cairo’s black cloud
- Image via Wikipedia
Rice, a staple of the Egyptian diet, is normally grown on some 486,000 hectares of Egypt’s 3.2 million hectares of agricultural land. This year, farmers grew rice on an additional 162,000 hectares of land. Agriculture experts say that 0.404 hectares (one acre) of rice produces two tons of hay, meaning the country accumulated 3.2 million tons of hay this year.
Some of the hay is used as feed for livestock but experts say more than 60 percent is burned before the new planting season.
But this is not without cost to Egyptians who either live in the capital or around the farms. When rice straw burning occurs, millions of residents must travel in poor visibility on the roads and many use masks to reduce the effect of the smog.
The Ministry of Environment said it has made progress in curbing the black cloud. “The cloud appeared only 40 hours this year instead of 190 hours last year,” Ahmed Abul Soud, chairman of the Air Quality Unit in the ministry, said. “We’re trying to end it, but it will take some time.”
Sceptics say the smog will never disappear if the government’s focus is only on limiting rice-straw burning and not on tackling other causes of pollution in the city, such as that from vehicles.
According to the UN Environment Programme, in normal times the average Cairo resident ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution, and this year the problem is also being exacerbated by the incineration of mounds of rubbish abandoned in the streets – an indirect consequence of the May 2009 pig cull.
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