Black Cloud Over Cairo

Black cloud reappears over Cairo

For the seventh year running, a mysterious black cloud has appeared over Cairo, triggering serious health concerns for the polluted city's 16 million residents.

Emissions of nitrogen dioxide, which cause serious health risks above certain levels, have reached record heights in the city, from the banks of the Nile, past the industrial suburbs of the delta and even in the desert areas.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that presence of more than 200 mg of nitrogen dioxide in the air is a great health risk.

But in Egypt, the levels have reached as high as 305 mg in the Cairo district of Qolali and 482 mg in Giza.

Worse still, the levels of the potentially toxic gas have soared to a staggering 700 mg in the northern city of Qaha, in the industrial zone of Qaliubiyah.

Cairo has one of the highest rates of pollution, ten times higher than global indicators defined by the WHO in October, making it one of the most polluted cities in the world together with Karachi, New Delhi, Beijing, Kathmandu and Lima.

...Environment minister Maged George has accused the local councils of failing to prevent their farmers from burning the hay, the customary method of clearing the way for new crops, as recycling or simply moving the stuff is too expensive.

...Exhaust fumes from 1.6 million cars, which include some 80,000 beat-up taxis, are also to blame, particularly this year when the black cloud coincided with the month of Ramadan, notorious for its traffic jams, authorities said.

And the high concentration of factories, like the cement factories of Helwan and Tebbin in southern Cairo, are also responsible for the surging pollution which kills 5,000 annually in the capital, according to hospital sources.

...Very high temperatures, no rain, little wind and sand blowing in from the desert all contribute to turning the overcrowded megalopolis into an urban inferno, something the authorities are increasingly desperate to fight.