Planning, environment ministers confer on integrated waste management system

CAIRO - 14 April 2019: Planning Minister Hala el Saeed and Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad met Sunday to discuss an integrated system to better manage wastes.

This integrated system should counter the negative impact of waste pileups on streets, not to mention diseases caused by open-air burning, Saeed said in a statement Sunday.

She also touched upon big losses in terms of the value added of such wastes.

The Planning Ministry, Saeid added, will provide funds needed to establish the infrastructure of the integrated waste system through investments in governorates totaling 9.3 billion pounds over five years.

The new system should also create 1.25 million jobs through merging the informal sector, the minister noted.

Fouad, for her part, said the system would contribute to securing some 2.7 billion pounds annually and save another 300 million dollars that would otherwise go to importing three million tons of coal.

She added that the system is meant to reduce air and water pollution, let alone visual pollution caused by pileups.

The system will also secure 6 billion dollars - the annual cost of environmental degradation, Fouad further said.