Once famously known as The Mubarak Industrial Zone, the largest manufacturing hub in Egypt, located in Quesna— 100 kilometers north of Cairo— is now one of the most toxic regions in the country, due to a lack of proper industrial waste removal.
Once famously known as The Mubarak Industrial Zone, the largest manufacturing hub in Egypt, located in Quesna— 100 kilometers north of Cairo— is now one of the most toxic regions in the country, due to a lack of proper industrial waste removal.
“We waited for the boom and the development, but instead, the area turned into a hotspot of disease due to the industrial wastewater discharged in the canal that irrigates farming land,” said Hisham Hosny, a 28-year-old accountant from Kfour Erraml, the most affected area. Hosny said that farming land in his area is entirely polluted and local residents have fallen ill as a result.
A plague not a boom
The zone employs over 4,908 workers and has 100 workshops for industries that complement the existing industries, which include big appliance names like El Arabi Group, in addition to Sigma Pharmaceutical Plant. But local residents are facing the brunt of a missing water treatment plant in Quesna, as factories have only two ways to discharge of their wastewater: directly into the ground through wells or into the canal that irrigates the farming fields and enters the village.
Dr. Ahmad Fathi, a physician at University Hospital in Shibin Al Kawm, says the industrial waste in the area, especially that which resulted from chemical industries and food manufacturing, “poses a real threat to the drinking water in the area, as well as irrigation water in which chemicals and harmful pesticides are dissolved then transferred to the soil.”
“This causes many diseases that have already infected dozens of villagers and symptoms of respiratory allergy, asthma, atherosclerosis, hepatomegaly, in addition to some skin and eye diseases are showing in the neighboring villages.”
What is even more dangerous according to Dr. Magdi Khalil, one of the most famous physicians in Quesna, is long-term pollution which might kill genetic elements in cells, leading to deformed embryos. Dr. Safwat Abdulgalil says not a single governor has visited the village and they only speak on satellite channels, while former President Mohamed Morsi visited the industrial zone during his electoral campaign without tackling the village’s problems.
“No funding”
“We are aware of the calamity but we lack the needed money,” said Colonel Muhammad Sawi, director of the industrial zone. He underlines that the industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plant was not completed due to the current financial crisis—it would cost nearly L.E. 120 million (US $17 million). “I appealed to the prime minister and the governor and they know about the matter. When money becomes available, we will work immediately to solve the problem,” Sawi claimed.
When asked about the losses sustained by the zone due to the escalation made by local people who sometimes close the factories, Sawi said: “Economic losses due to the closure of the zone exceed the cost of the plant establishment. Two months ago, the zone was closed for two days due to protests, leading to losses of L.E. 1.6 million (US $232,000) in addition to closing a number of vital factories, such as the leather factory and Sigma Pharmaceutical Plant.”
As a partial solution, the Drinking Water and Sanitation Establishment in Monufia decided to provide dredgers to pull out water from areas surrounding the zone until a water treatment plant is built.
