CAIRO – 11 April 2022: Minister of Environment Yasmin Fouad stated Sunday that the Global Environment Facility had granted Egypt $8 million to localize electronic and medical waste recycling technology.
The Global Environment Facility also granted Egypt $8.1 million to finance the Sustainable Management of Persistent Organic Pollutants Project (PoPs).
The project was also supported by $750,000 from the World Bank Group’s Pollution Management and Environmental Health Trust Fund.
The project’s total cost is $23 million. This is largely due to the positive impact it has on 1.4 million Egyptian citizens directly and 3.1 million indirectly.
Minister Fouad said that samples of different pesticides had been collected from governorates that designated them as toxic. Later, studies were done to determine if they could be disposed of through large cement plants.
Concerning the PCB-contaminated oils, which were obtained from electricity transmission facilities, they were treated and then recycled. This has provided a huge economic return given their high prices.
The minister clarified, stating that after inspecting 13,000 electricity transmission facilities nationwide, scientific studies were done, which led to the decision of importing two PCBs detoxification units.
Minister Fouad pointed out that the imported units were the most recent on the market, as they can remove oils from the oil without needing to shut down transmission lines. They are also capable of eliminating other types of toxins and provide high levels of safety.
The environment minister highlighted the fact that the improvement in Greater Cairo’s air quality was one of the biggest projects that are still ongoing. The ministry announced last week that the National Strategy for Climate Change (which addresses 17 aspects) would be launched within a few days.
