The Egyptian Garbage Control

The Egyptian Garbage Control

Kyle Ruhl 0718367

Introduction

Garbage has become a major human activity creating a negative impact on the Egyptian environment. The production of garbage is of course not a human activity but rather a byproduct of consumerism. The issue that needs to be explored is why garbage production has increased within the country and especially the capital of Cairo. With the increasing amounts of garbage filling city streets, the water supply is beginning to fall victim to negligence of waste removal. The country has had political unrest for many years now and garbage removal and sanitation issues have been "put on the back burner".  The aim of this essay is to evaluate the impacts of the increasing garbage on water as a resource within Egypt and to recommend solutions to manage this increasingly devastating impact.

Human Activity and its Impacts

The human activity that is causing a negative impact on the Egyptian environment is the lack of waste removal in the country. Due to the accumulation of garbage filling city streets, the water supply from the Nile river is now becoming contaminated and destroying the ecosystem. The biophysical environment of Egypt has been on a major decline over the past couple of decades. Pollution from major cities has been the cause of this. Most of this pollution comes from the growing industrial sector in Cairo. Improper disposal of waste from these large factories is slowing destroying the Nile river. " In Egypt the industrial waste-water is considered one of the main sources of water pollution because of the toxic chemicals and organic loading. 80% of the whole country’s annual industrial effluent is discharged untreated into the Nile, canals, wells, municipal sewage systems, and the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt’s 329 major factories continue to discharge as much as 2.5 million m3 per day of untreated effluent into Egypt’s waters." (Busse, 2013). The biophysical concerns are quite obvious and quite alarming as to what is affecting the water supply in Egypt. Protecting the Nile's environment seems to be of little concern for the Egyptian government as these factories continue to have their way of disposing of their waste. The socioeconomic environment of Egypt has been affected from the poor waste disposal because even a basic city garbage service is beginning to become non-existent. Garbage is beginning to fill the streets of Cairo as garbage services cannot keep up with the increasing number of waste being produced due to the increasing number of residents and the wasteful industrial sector continues to grow (Busse, 2013).  Egypt's GDP has even declined since 2011 at approximately 0.4 to 0.6% due to the inefficiency of its solid waste management (Mostafa, 2014). Rat infestations are increasing because of the trash lined streets. These rodents carry many diseases and many people are falling ill from them. When any illness or disease strikes an area, economic turmoil is to follow because if everyone is sick and/or dying then production numbers begin to fall as output cannot be maintained.  The relationship between the two types of environment, biophysical and socioeconomic, that are being affected are so strong correlated that to identify the problem(s) and to determine a solution will be quite evident. The biophysical environment is being affected by the mass amounts of waste being produced by the increasing number of people living in Cairo which is in turn affecting the socioeconomic environment because of improper waste disposal which can make even simple transportation around the city difficult at times and trash fills the streets. Travelling these streets has even become a health concern as food,air,rat and water bourne illnesses are increasing (Guenard, 2013).