Cabinet reviews government's efforts to combat 'black cloud'

CAIRO - 5 December 2019: Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad reviewed on Wednesday the government's efforts to combat the “black cloud” in coordination among the ministries of environment, agriculture, local development and interior.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, under Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, the minister said that the government’s efforts in this file are based on several axes; recycling rice straw, reducing vehicle exhaust, controlling emissions from industrial facilities and dealing with the open area burning of municipal wastes in addition to launching awareness-raising programs in this regard.

The rate of rice straw collected by the citizens after raising their awareness towards its economic value has reached 80%, Fouad said.

As many as 38,000 public transport vehicles have been examined as part of the government's system and 20% of them were found to be violating the permissible limits of emissions, compared with 23% in 2018, Fouad added.

She also said that 6,160 industrial facilities were inspected, adding that 23% of them were violating the permissible limits of emissions.

The number of cases recorded for carrying out open burning activities were reduced by 34% compared to cases registered in 2018, she added.