Pics: Youth Love Egypt removes plastic waste from the Nile

CAIRO - 24 December 2021: Under the auspices of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the Youth Love Egypt Foundation, with participation of 120 students removed plastic waste from the Nile, said the Ministry in a statement on Friday. 

The group conducted their two-hour cleaning campaign on both sides of the Nile in Zamalek, the statement said.

 

“The Ministry believes in the importance [of a such campaign] to disseminate awareness of the importance of preserving water resources,” said Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel-Atti in the statement.

Rivers like the Nile in Egypt contains tons of plastic bags and bottles. In February 2021, the Verynile team, a non-profitable organization dedicated to cleaning the Nile river, collected 4 tons of plastic from the Nile. As per a new study conducted by Sky News and published in June 2020, two-thirds of the Nile fish contain microplastics.

 

“Thus, the government has launched its national strategy to reduce the usage of disposable bags; a national committee has been formed and chaired by the Minister of Environment and representatives of the concerned body to carry out the strategy,” Assistant Minister for Environmental Projects Ali Abu Senna told Youm7 in March 2021.

 

Within the framework of the presidential campaign “Live Green,” the Ministry of Environment focused on curbing the consumption of single-use plastic bags as a way to decrease the danger of such toxic materials on the environment.

 

The ministry has stated previously that supermarkets and hypermarkets are consuming the largest amount of disposable plastic bags, adding that the ministry has taken measures to replace the single-use bags with biodegradable ones in the supermarket chains.

Egypt consumes around 12 billion plastic bags annually. In 2012, plastic bag consumption per capita reached 25 kg, with an annual increase of 6 percent since 2006, which registered 1.64 million tons of plastic bags, according to the official data issued by the ministry as of July 2019.

In 2012, Egypt consumed 2.07 million tons of raw plastic materials, 28 percent of which is produced locally, while the rest is imported. The areas that largely consume plastic bags are Cairo, Delta, and Alexandria, with 40 percent, 23 percent and 12 percent respectively, the report added.

Additional Reporting by Samar Samir