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Rhet 201 portfolio
Citation preview
Ramadan1
Mariam Ramadan
900102212
Rhetoric 201
Summer 2012
Mr. Michael Gibson
Ramadan2
Table of contents
Cover letter………………………………………. 3
Section I:
1. Journal 1…………………………………………. 6
2. Journal 2…………………………………………. 7
3. Journal 3…………………………………………. 10
4. Journal 4…………………………………………..14
5. Journal 5…………………………………………..16
Section II:
Presentation………………………………………19
Section III:
1. Final Paper outline………………………………… 28
2. Final paper Draft 1…………………………………..29
3. Final paper Draft 2…………………………………..35
4. Final paper Draft 3…………………………………..41
5. Final paper Draft 4 (Final)…………………………..66
Ramadan3
Cover letter
This is my Rhetoric 201 portfolio, which contains all the work done since I
started this course. I consider the portfolio a reflection of the effort that I exerted in
this course therefore I organized my work according to its original sequence. I
included the earlier work first, then the recent afterwards. That would be because I
want the reader to know why did I choose that topic in specific, how my knowledge
of that topic developed by time from one piece to the other, how did I gather the
information mentioned in my final paper, how I managed to come to conclusions and
define things, how did I develop the style of writing and the MLA style, and at last I
want my readers to know on the whole how did my topic, which I consider a seed that
I planted, grow to be a huge tree with multiple branches. I divided this portfolio into
three separate sections, one for the journals, one for the presentation and one for the
final paper’s drafts so it, but still I applied what I have mentioned before for each
section.
This was the first time for me to do an I-search paper. Thanks to Mr. Gibson,
he introduced us to such a technique this semester, and it turned out to be a very
interesting one. This gave me a chance to feel more powerful as I wrote my paper, as I
finally was able to include “I” whenever I wanted. The more I felt powerful the more
I got interested in finishing the final paper. Also, an I-search paper helps the writer to
reveal his character and convey his message to the readers.
Ramadan4
On the whole, this course was a blast for me. I got introduced to new writing
forms that would help me with my other courses in the future. It also encouraged me
to choose one of the most difficult and important topics, which is industrial pollution
as it had many aspects to be covered in the paper. Other than that, this course
introduced me to new searching techniques such as the primary research, it was the
first time for me to go out and interview people in order to get information. Mr.
Gibson, the course instructor was also one of the reasons why I became so exited
about my paper as he always supported and encouraged me to write whatever I
considered important and that’s exactly what a writer needs to convey his message.
Ramadan5
Section I
Ramadan6
Journal #1
Jun 10th:
Since I just got back from Qatar, I might want to write about it. How did it develop so
fast in less than 10 years? Maybe find out why do Qatari people only ride luxurious
cars and not WORK?? Why are Asians , specially, Indians are wide spread in Qatar?
Actually most, if not all, the work force in Qatar are Asians. Why isn’t Egypt as
developed as Qatar? actually Egyptians work 10x more than Qataris and still do not
earn half what Qataris earn.
Umm.. I think that one of the things that hinders our development is NEGLECT.
Egyptians neglect many things. For example, they neglect their health and hygiene,
they neglect the truth sometimes to please their ego…. They even sometimes neglect
their surroundings, in other words they sometimes neglect their environment. Which
is a major problem!! Egyptians for the past few decades neglected their environment
in many ways. For example entrepreneurs neglect the fact that they need to get rid of
their factories wastes in an environmentally friendly way in order not to harm people
but of course why bother and pay more when u can just take the easy way out and pay
less?? This problem has actually caused much harm for the population. For instance,
their hygiene is affected through air and water as there are both gas and liquid
emissions that those factories discharge during s production. Maybe its not the
entrepreneurs’ fault, maybe it’s the government fault. Maybe that’s what I want to
know more about….. WHAT ABOUT INDUSTRIAL WASTE ??.... why is it
there…. What is it… how does it harm us and how can we prevent it??!!!
Ramadan7
Journal#2
Source 1: Speciation of some heavy metals in River Nile sediments, Cairo, Egypt
This study has discussed:
- That heavy metals such (example Lead) are found in spots near iron and steel
factories.
- Methods for controlling water pollution caused by the industrial waste such as using
aquatic ecosystems and enforcing stricter environmental regulations.
- How the “behavior and concentration” of metals in residue could help in “detecting
source, degree of pollution, and distribution mechanisms in aquatic environment.”
- It also stated that heavy industry is intense in Greater Cairo and Alexandria.
Source 2: AIR POLLUTION MONITORING AND USE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
BASED SOLID STATE GAS SENSORS IN GREATER CAIRO AREA, EGYPT
This study discussed that:
- “The development of a suitable method for monitoring the pollution causing
sources has not followed at the same pace” which means that the pollution rate
is higher than the rate of monitoring or controlling it.
- They have applied the Nanotechnology to many industrial and domestic fields
to try and monitor the factors of pollution or try and find what possibly could
Ramadan8
be the industrial wastes which contribute to the pollution. Example:
“applications for gas monitoring systems, gas leak detectors in factories, fire
and toxic gas detectors, ventilation control, breath alcohol detectors, and the
like”.
- Greater Cairo contains : “27% of the Egyptian population, 64% of the industry
and 45% of motor vehicles.”
Source 3: Living with Pollution in Egypt
- This study discusses how much the population is affected badly by pollution.
- Most of this pollution is due to industrial wastes.
- The pollution affects the behaviors of the citizens.
Source 4:
Abdel-Sabour, M. F., Rabie, F. H., Mostafa, T., and Hassan, S. A. "Impact of
Industrial Wastewater Disposal on Surface Water Bodies in Mostord Area,
North Greater Cairo." Full Text Electronic Journal List. N.p., n.d. Web.
11 June 2012. <http://tr6rt9pf7u.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39. 88-
2004>.
The study indicates that:
- Seasonally, water samples are collected from different areas.
- The results so far indicated that fabric factories mostly discharges: Zn, Cu, Cd,
Co and Pb. While the steel companies discharges Fe and MN. As well as the
plastic factories discharge Ni.
Ramadan9
Source 5: Achievements and Planned Activities for (2000-2001) a bit late but still
convenient
This article discusses:
- That the lead smelting industry is one of the main sources of emissions in Cairo.
- “The secondary lead smelting industry produces elemental lead and lead
alloys by reclaiming lead, primarily from scrap automobile and truck
batteries”
Source 6: Achievements and Planned Activities for (2002-2003)
One of the methods to prevent the pollution from reaching the populants is to
formulate “a plan of the relocation of the polluting activities outside the populated
areas, among them the smelters, quarries, potteries, crackers, brick factories and coal
and lime facilities as well as 1206 mining factories and 6000 textiles factories.”
Ramadan10
Journal #3
Today, Wednesday the 13th of June 2012, I have finally decided what would
be my report question. It goes like this….. How can we deal with the damage made by
industries?.. of course this is a big questions which automatically have sub-questions
associated with it. For instance what is the damage created by industries in the first
place?? Is it that huge to give it such attention and care?? Who could do such
task??....etc. In the upcoming summary of the new sources, you may find some
answers to some of the previous questions.
Source #1: Nasreya: a treatment and disposal facility for industrial hazardous
waste in Alexandria, Egypt: phase I by: Adham R. Ramadan, Per Kock and Amani
Nadim.
I found this article interesting and relevant to my questions as it describes/
demonstrates what is the “Nasreya” facility which, is an integrated facility which
helps in managing the industrial hazardous waste in Alexandria. Mainly, it targets
inorganic industrial wastes discharged in the soil. The author has mentioned in this
article that there are industrial HW generated all around Alexandria and are not well
treated as Egypt’s lacking proper treatment and disposal services. I think that’s what
triggered the idea of the Nasreya Facility in the first place. The Facility contains the
following: 1) A secure landfill 2) Solar evaporation ponds 3) Phsyco chemical
treatment 4) solidification and interm storage facility. However this project is
challenged by the absence of adequate facilities and services needed for HW
Ramadan11
management. Yet, his doesn’t mean that it has failed to fulfill its purpose , on the
contrary, the Nasreya center should always be an example that promotes HW
management.
Source #2: WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT IN EGYPT by: Hussein I.
Abdel-Shafy and Raouf O. Aly.
This report focuses more on the damage made by industrial wastes in the river Nile.
The problem assessed here is that the agricultural and agrochemical drains as well as
the industrial drains are mixed up therefore the agricultural lands receive wastewater.
This problem could be an answer to one of the sub questions which is : Is it that huge
to give it such attention and care?... in other words.. to what extent does the industrial
waste damage the environment. Well. Obviously industrial wastes could poison the
population through their food. Some details are provided in this report such as the
“the amount of industrial wastewater discharge into the Nile” which is 550 Mm3 /year
WOOWW!! It also states that both huge and small-private industries, such as: sugar
mills, hydrogenated oil, onion drying factories, paper, metal ,chemical, textile,
pharmaceutical, oil, soap and petroleum, contribute to the damage. Further more it
states that more than 15 factories discharge their wastes directly to the lake through
pipelines. This means that if such damage is not diminished, if not abolished, the
agriculture in Egypt will soon be DOOMED !!
Ramadan12
Source #3: Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-Up in
Qalyoubia.
This report is the most interesting source I have found recently, not because its
written by my mom or anything, because it discusses a very successful project that is
done by the USAID to treat some damage done by industries. For this case the
damage would be the lead that emmited from the lead smelters mainly in shoubra El
kheima which is a very crowded and highly populated area. It is is called: LIFE lead
pollution cleanup project in Qalyoubia. The general aim of the project is to encourage
the residents in such highly polluted areas to improve their living conditions. One of
the parts that have intrigued me the most in the process of cleaning or managing the
wastes is how it’s transported. There are regulations and rules that have to be
carefully taken into consideration while transporting the wastes. Some of them are
exactly as follows:
1) Hazardous waste is only to be transported in transport vehicles owned by
operators possessing a transport permit.
2) Vehicles are to be equipped with necessary safety equipment
3) Drivers must be trained on handling emergencies
4) Labeling the vehicles
“ Such smelters are surrounded by sensitive ,highly, residential areas such as shoubra
El kheima, which contains 3 million inhabitants. Ismailia road as well as the Ismailia
canal, which is branched from the river Nile at this particular area and runs toward the
east for 200 kilometers, carries the contaminated dust, which is deposited on the road,
from the smelters for long distances through their motion” said Dr. Fatheya Soliman,
Technical Manager of LIFE Lead.
Ramadan13
I think that this would be a huge reason to motivate or drive people to pay attention to
the industrial hazardous waste as it is easily transferred and carried through air, water
and soil. Its like a flu that makes its way to a healthy body.
Ramadan14
Journal#4
Now that we are done with our desk research, Dr. mike asked us to begin our
primary research, which involves exposing our topics to the public through
questionnaires and interviews. In order to collect as many responses/information as
possible, we should first post our questionnaires on social networks such as twitter,
Facebook, my space…. etc. Second we should email them to people who are not
reachable through these kinds of media. Third we better print out our questionnaires
and ask the public to fill them out.
In my case, I would like to go to industrial clusters and distribute my
questionnaire to people living there or even working in the factories. My
questionnaire is designed to answer many questions I had in mind about such a
phenomenon. For instance I would like to know whether people know that industrial
pollution is a dangerous threat or not, are there people who could help in eradicating
such a phenomenon with their ideas?? Are people aware with the previous efforts
done to eradicate this phenomenon as well?? Those are questions that I couldn’t get
from my desk research.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t go into the streets and ask people living near
industrial clusters because of the country’s unstable security status. This made me
wait for sometime before posting my questionnaire online as I thought that it would
be better if I handed it out my self in the streets. However better late that never!!!! I
finally posted it online on Facebook and even emailed it to some people.
Ramadan15
As for the interview, ill go to Egypt’s Environmental Affair Agency to
interview some people from the auditing department. This department is responsible
for keeping track of the factories who through excessive wastes so they could stop
them from polluting the environment. I hope I could get more answers for the
questions I have in mind, besides it have always been eager to see one of the
governmental institutions/agencies/organizations.
Ramadan16
Journal #5
Until now, what I have included in my paper is the following; 1st the
introduction, which contains introducing my topic and the research question as the
research question leaving out the limitations part because until earlier I haven’t
completely finished my research yet, accordingly there are other limitations that I
would be including when its finished. I have decided to leave out this part because I
want to write it all together at once and not to get confused.2nd, I copied the annotated
bibliography but this time I have integrated all sources together; the ones with similar
ideas or similar issues were put together. 3rd I have introduced my survey. My survey
included the questionnaire and the interview, which I have conducted to get answers
for many of my questions. For example, one of the reasons why I did this
questionnaire was to test people’s awareness, get solutions that would help in
eradicating the industrial pollution and to know whether people are willing to
contribute in eradicating such phenomenon or not.
Umm I think my limitations by now are coming to an end. The most obvious
or common one would be that am taking this course in 6 weeks which is not enough
time to include in our paper what ever we want. The timing also affected my
questionnaire badly, because until now I only collected 31 responses as most of the
people are reluctant and not willing to fill out academic surveys in their summer time,
accordingly I have only collected 31 responses. However, I have selected most of my
audience carefully; for instance I didn’t only gave out the questionnaire for my friends
and family, but also to science majors and people who already work in the
environment as to have as useful responses as possible. Definitely the country’s, bad,
Ramadan17
security status was a limitation for me when it came to interviewing people because I
was willing to go to some industrial areas that are surrounded by habitats and ask
inhabitants about the effects of the industrial pollution on them. This would have
helped me a lot as I would have collected information directly from the people and
not from other witnesses.
Most of my friends are almost done with their papers, they only have to refine
it and make minor modifications, but mine is not yet ready. Well, I don’t know
whether this means that I am behind or what?! But, I think that I still have a good
amount of time and that if I had hurried up my paper I wouldn’t be as efficient.
Anyways, I am almost grasping a conclusion and could write a pretty good
reflection on my topic so far. I would discuss what surprised me and what didn’t. I
would say how beneficial was my research and whether I knew what I wanted to
know. Maybe compare my expectations/predictions with the real results. Also maybe
I’d mention other people’s responses on the paper as well.
Ramadan18
Section II
Ramadan19
Presentation
Ramadan20
Ramadan21
Ramadan22
Ramadan23
Ramadan24
Ramadan25
Ramadan26
Ramadan27
Section III
Ramadan28
My paper outline: Introduction: Topic Research question Limitations to your study Literature review: (2ndry research) Copy and paste the annotated bib. Group things together (same ideas or contradicting ideas) Methodology: (1ry surveys and interviews) Explain the survey that u conducted Analyzing results Results: Compile data and analyze it Conclusion: Reflection Recommendation To look back and see what I wanted to achieve, what I wasn’t able to know and why.
Ramadan29
Draft #1
Introduction:
Industrial pollution has been a threat to Egypt’s Environment since the 20th
century. This phenomenon has awakened with the transfer of industries from the
developed countries to the developing ones, such as Egypt. Unfortunately, Keeping
those industries environmentally friendly seemed an impossible mission for the state
to accomplish. Therefore, discharges and wastes of those industries continued to build
up with a faster pace than removing/cleaning them ending up with a dramatic
environmental threat as those wastes are predominantly poisonous substances which
go into the water, soil and air. Therefore, we can conclude that the damage would be
wide spread and would reach the citizens anyway either through respiration, eating or
drinking. So, as I found this issue inevitable, I have decided to conduct a research
about the industrial pollution. My research will answer a wide range of questions, for
instance, how does the pollution affect people, what kind of pollution is mostly
noticeable, air, water or solid, how much are the people aware of such a damaging
phenomenon, and if they are aware of such thing, are they aware of the risks and
threats it imposes on them? Nevertheless, there is still one question that I am
concerned about the most, which is how could we deal with this threat/damage
imposed on us by such industries? In other words, what efforts could be done to
eradicate, or even diminish, such phenomenon?
Ramadan30
Literature Review:
One might ask, how exactly does the industrial waste harm the citizens?
From my conducted research, Hussein I. Abdel-shafy, and Aly Raouf O. stated in
"Wastewater Management in Egypt." that more than 15 factories discharge their
wastes directly to the lakes through pipelines and that both huge and small-private
industries, such as: sugar mills, hydrogenated oil, onion drying factories, paper, metal,
chemical, textile, pharmaceutical, oil, soap and petroleum contribute to the damage.
Further more, when they have calculated the amount discharged into the Nile per year
they have found it chocking, 550 Mmm3 /year.
Similar statistics were provided by EEPP in a Site Investigation Report: Awadallah
Lead Smelter. They discussed in this report how does one of the heavy metals (lead)
diffuse into the atmosphere surrounding the source and how far it could go. Referring
to figure 1, you can see the different concentrations of lead in the area surrounding the
smelter, which is the source. The non-green areas in the figure are the lead smelters
(the blue and yellow spots) and the green parts are the areas surrounding them. The
blue color indicates highly concentrated contamination of lead and then the
concentration decreases as the color fades or gets brighter. As you can see, there is a
huge area affected by the smelters including water as the lead in the air sometimes
deposits on the surface of the water then it gradually deposits in the sediments at the
bottom and sides of the canal and stay there forever. This means that these hazardous
substances make there way into the habitants systems anyway. As mentioned by Ed.
Sohair R. Mehanna in The Environmentalist by Nicholas Hopkins, respiring these
toxic emissions could lead to terrible headaches, which influence the citizens’
Ramadan31
behavior badly. For example, they are more apt to fights and crimes than people who
respire less contaminated air.
Fig.1
Ramadan32
Ramadan, A. B. A., and Jeffery Steevens. Suggested in "Air Pollution
Monitoring and Use of Nanotechnology Based Solid State Gas Sensors in Greater
Cairo Area, Egypt” one of the possible reasons why is the industrial pollution a
growing phenomenon until now. They have said that the pollution rate is higher than
the rate of monitoring or controlling it, which means that the efforts done so far to
observe and diminish such pollution are not enough and that in order to stop this
growth there has to be more Research and Development (R&D) done. However, the
efforts done to clean such damage could not be forgotten. For instance, it was
mentioned in by Adham Ramadan R., Per Kock, and Amani Nadim "Nasreya: A
Treatment and Disposal Facility for Industrial Hazardous Waste in Alexandria,
Egypt: Phase I.", that there has been a facility for managing industrial Hazardous
Waste(HW) in Alexandria that hasn’t been so successful yet, it was set as an example
that initiated and promoted HW management. What is the “Nasreya” facility? It is an
integrated facility which helps in managing the industrial HW in Alexandria. Mainly,
it targets inorganic industrial wastes discharged in the soil. The authors mentioned in
this article that there are industrial HW generated all around Alexandria and are not
well treated as Egypt’s lacking proper treatment and disposal services. I think that’s
what triggered the idea of the Nasreya Facility in the first place. The Facility contains
the following: 1) A secure landfill 2) Solar evaporation ponds 3) Phsyco-chemical
treatment 4) solidification and interim storage facility. However, am mentioned
before, the article highlighted that this project is challenged by the absence of
adequate facilities and services needed for HW management. Yet, that doesn’t mean
that it has failed to fulfill its purpose , on the contrary, the Nasreya center should
always be an example that promotes HW management and an encouragement to
continue what they have started.
Ramadan33
According to the Millennium Science and Engineering, Chemonics
International, and USAID in Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-
Up in Qalyoubia, there has been another project, which Contributed in eradicating
such phenomenon. The project is called: LIFE Lead Pollution Cleanup Project in
Qalyoubia. The general aim of the project is to encourage the residents in highly
polluted areas to improve their living conditions. One of the parts that have intrigued
me the most in the process of cleaning or managing the wastes is how they’re
transported. There are regulations and rules that have to be carefully taken into
consideration while transporting the wastes. Some of them are: first, hazardous waste
is only to be transported in transport vehicles owned by operators possessing a
transport permit; second, vehicles are to be equipped with necessary safety
equipment; third, drivers must be trained on handling emergencies; and fourth,
vehicles must be labeled.
Before cleaning any of the Infected factories/areas, there has to be an
investigation process in order to locate/identify exactly where and what is the
infection. As this investigation process proceeds for years, it became easier for the
investigators to detect and predict what is the most common emissions from
industries. For instance, it has been claimed so far that lead is the most widespread
heavy metal/hazardous emission in Cairo as they have found that “The secondary lead
smelting industry produces elemental lead and lead alloys by reclaiming lead,
primarily from scrap automobile and truck batteries” (MSEA, and EEAA), and that
lead is most likely to be found in spots near iron and steel factories (Lasheen, M. R.,
and N. S. Ammar.). Furthermore, they have found that other emissions such as Zn,
Cu, Cd, Ni, Co and Pb, are mostly discharged from fabric and plastic factories(Abdel-
Sabour, M. F., Rabie, F. H., Mostafa, T., and Hassan,S.A.).
Ramadan34
Methodology:
The survey that I have conducted contains two sections, the questionnaire and the
interview. Each of them was designed to serve a different purpose as I had many
questions in mind to be answered.
Ramadan35
Draft #2
Introduction:
Industrial pollution has been a threat to Egypt’s Environment since the 20th
century. This phenomenon has awakened with the transfer of industries from the
developed countries to the developing ones, such as Egypt. Unfortunately, Keeping
those industries environmentally friendly seemed an impossible mission for the state
to accomplish. Therefore, discharges and wastes of those industries continued to build
up with a faster pace than removing/cleaning them ending up with a dramatic
environmental threat as those wastes are predominantly poisonous substances which
go into the water, soil and air. Therefore, we can conclude that the damage would be
wide spread and would reach the citizens anyway either through respiration, eating or
drinking. So, as I found this issue inevitable, I have decided to conduct a research
about the industrial pollution. My research will answer a wide range of questions, for
instance, how does the pollution affect people, what kind of pollution is mostly
noticeable, air, water or solid, how much are the people aware of such a damaging
phenomenon, and if they are aware of such thing, are they aware of the risks and
threats it imposes on them? Nevertheless, there is still one question that I am
concerned about the most, which is how could we deal with this threat/damage
imposed on us by such industries? In other words, what efforts could be done to
eradicate, or even diminish, such phenomenon?
Ramadan36
Literature Review:
One might ask, how exactly does the industrial waste harm the citizens?
From my conducted research, Hussein I. Abdel-shafy, and Aly Raouf O. stated in
"Wastewater Management in Egypt." that more than 15 factories discharge their
wastes directly to the lakes through pipelines and that both huge and small-private
industries, such as: sugar mills, hydrogenated oil, onion drying factories, paper, metal,
chemical, textile, pharmaceutical, oil, soap and petroleum contribute to the damage.
Further more, when they have calculated the amount discharged into the Nile per year
they have found it chocking, 550 Mmm3 /year.
Similar statistics were provided by EEPP in a Site Investigation Report: Awadallah
Lead Smelter. They discussed in this report how does one of the heavy metals (lead)
diffuse into the atmosphere surrounding the source and how far it could go. Referring
to figure 1, you can see the different concentrations of lead in the area surrounding the
smelter, which is the source. The non-green areas in the figure are the lead smelters
(the blue and yellow spots) and the green parts are the areas surrounding them. The
blue color indicates highly concentrated contamination of lead and then the
concentration decreases as the color fades or gets brighter. As you can see, there is a
huge area affected by the smelters including water as the lead in the air sometimes
deposits on the surface of the water then it gradually deposits in the sediments at the
bottom and sides of the canal and stay there forever. This means that these hazardous
substances make there way into the habitants systems anyway. As mentioned by Ed.
Sohair R. Mehanna in The Environmentalist by Nicholas Hopkins, respiring these
toxic emissions could lead to terrible headaches, which influence the citizens’
Ramadan37
behavior badly. For example, they are more apt to fights and crimes than people who
respire less contaminated air.
Fig.1
Ramadan38
Ramadan, A. B. A., and Jeffery Steevens. Suggested in "Air Pollution
Monitoring and Use of Nanotechnology Based Solid State Gas Sensors in Greater
Cairo Area, Egypt” one of the possible reasons why is the industrial pollution a
growing phenomenon until now. They have said that the pollution rate is higher than
the rate of monitoring or controlling it, which means that the efforts done so far to
observe and diminish such pollution are not enough and that in order to stop this
growth there has to be more Research and Development (R&D) done. However, the
efforts done to clean such damage could not be forgotten. For instance, it was
mentioned in by Adham Ramadan R., Per Kock, and Amani Nadim "Nasreya: A
Treatment and Disposal Facility for Industrial Hazardous Waste in Alexandria,
Egypt: Phase I.", that there has been a facility for managing industrial Hazardous
Waste(HW) in Alexandria that hasn’t been so successful yet, it was set as an example
that initiated and promoted HW management. What is the “Nasreya” facility? It is an
integrated facility which helps in managing the industrial HW in Alexandria. Mainly,
it targets inorganic industrial wastes discharged in the soil. The authors mentioned in
this article that there are industrial HW generated all around Alexandria and are not
well treated as Egypt’s lacking proper treatment and disposal services. I think that’s
what triggered the idea of the Nasreya Facility in the first place. The Facility contains
the following: 1) A secure landfill 2) Solar evaporation ponds 3) Phsyco-chemical
treatment 4) solidification and interim storage facility. However, am mentioned
before, the article highlighted that this project is challenged by the absence of
adequate facilities and services needed for HW management. Yet, that doesn’t mean
that it has failed to fulfill its purpose , on the contrary, the Nasreya center should
always be an example that promotes HW management and an encouragement to
continue what they have started.
Ramadan39
According to the Millennium Science and Engineering, Chemonics
International, and USAID in Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-
Up in Qalyoubia, there has been another project, which Contributed in eradicating
such phenomenon. The project is called: LIFE Lead Pollution Cleanup Project in
Qalyoubia. The general aim of the project is to encourage the residents in highly
polluted areas to improve their living conditions. One of the parts that have intrigued
me the most in the process of cleaning or managing the wastes is how they’re
transported. There are regulations and rules that have to be carefully taken into
consideration while transporting the wastes. Some of them are: first, hazardous waste
is only to be transported in transport vehicles owned by operators possessing a
transport permit; second, vehicles are to be equipped with necessary safety
equipment; third, drivers must be trained on handling emergencies; and fourth,
vehicles must be labeled.
Before cleaning any of the Infected factories/areas, there has to be an
investigation process in order to locate/identify exactly where and what is the
infection. As this investigation process proceeds for years, it became easier for the
investigators to detect and predict what is the most common emissions from
industries. For instance, it has been claimed so far that lead is the most widespread
heavy metal/hazardous emission in Cairo as they have found that “The secondary lead
smelting industry produces elemental lead and lead alloys by reclaiming lead,
primarily from scrap automobile and truck batteries” (MSEA, and EEAA), and that
lead is most likely to be found in spots near iron and steel factories (Lasheen, M. R.,
and N. S. Ammar.). Furthermore, they have found that other emissions such as Zn,
Ramadan40
Cu, Cd, Ni, Co and Pb, are mostly discharged from fabric and plastic factories(Abdel-
Sabour, M. F., Rabie, F. H., Mostafa, T., and Hassan,S.A.).
Methodology:
The survey that I have conducted contains two sections, the questionnaire and
the interview. Each of them was designed to serve a different purpose as I had many
questions in mind to be answered.
The questionnaire had 10 specific questions, starting with the general ones and ending
with the most important like: If you had a chance, would you contribute in eradicating
the industrial pollution? If yes, then how? Most of the other questions were short
multiple choices as I found it more convenient, focused and easy for the laymen to
answer. The purpose of this questionnaire was mainly to test the people’s awareness of
my topic, which is industrial pollution, and to collect possible solutions/ways to
eradicate/fight such phenomenon. For instance, the question “Did you ever notice the
damage caused by industries?” would be answered by either yes or no, if more than
50% answered yes then awareness is not a problem then it shouldn’t be one of the
proposed solutions then. However, if more than 50% answered no, we should consider
raising awareness campaigns as an initial step in trying to eradicate industrial pollution.
Even more specific questions such as “If yes, state what damage did you notice so far?’
Would reveal the level of their awareness and would show how credible their suggested
results.
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Draft #3
Let it be a Cleaner Start
Industrial pollution has been a threat to Egypt’s Environment since the 20th
century. This phenomenon has awakened with the transfer of industries from the
developed countries to the developing ones, such as Egypt. Unfortunately, Keeping
those industries environmentally friendly seemed an impossible mission for the state
to accomplish. Therefore, discharges and wastes of those industries continued to build
up with a faster pace than removing/cleaning them ending up with a dramatic
environmental threat as those wastes are predominantly poisonous substances which
go into the water, soil and air. Therefore, we can conclude that the damage would be
wide spread and would reach the citizens anyway either through respiration, eating or
drinking. So, as I found this issue inevitable, I have decided to conduct a research
about the industrial pollution in Egypt. My research will answer a wide range of
questions, for instance, how does the pollution affect people, what kind of pollution is
the industrial pollution, air, water or solid, how much are the people aware of such
damaging phenomenon, and if they are aware of such thing, are they aware of the
risks and threats it imposes on them? Nevertheless, there is still one question that I am
concerned about the most, which is how could we deal with this threat/damage
imposed on us by such industries? In other words, what efforts could be done to
eradicate, or even diminish, such phenomenon?
Despite of seeing my research fruitful, I believe it could have been better if I
hadn’t face a lot of obstacles/limitations. The most obvious or common limitation was
the timing, it affected my questionnaire results a bit; as some of my targeted people
were reluctant and not willing to fill out academic surveys in their summer time,
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accordingly I have only collected 31 responses. However, I have selected most of my
audience carefully; for instance I didn’t only gave out the questionnaire for my friends
and family, but also to science majors and people who already work in the
environment as to have as useful responses as possible. Definitely the country’s, bad,
security status was a limitation for me when it came to interviewing people because I
was willing to go to some industrial areas that are surrounded by habitats and ask
inhabitants about the effects of the industrial pollution on them. This would have
helped me a lot as I would have collected information directly from the people and
not from other witnesses.
The searching process:
By the time I have decided on my topic, I decided to start my secondary/desk
research. So, I went to the American University in Cairo (AUC) ‘s library to search
for books that discussed my topic and found two books about the environment in
general and not in Cairo in specific, however, my topic was exclusive to greater Cairo
and maybe some other few governorates so I decided that I be using the books that I
have found. Also my mom, who is an expert in the field of the environment for 30
years now, told me that environment books are usually boring and not as rich with
facts and statistics as online journals and articles. Accordingly, I have decided to
browse on the AUC’s Library One, online, search in order to find interesting sources.
Actually whatever sources I have gathered from this online database were very useful
and rich with updated facts and statistics. First I started to search for how could
industrial pollution harm the people exposed to it, which was one of the important
things I wanted to include in my paper as, in order to attract attention to such
phenomenon, people should be informed of how damaging and dangerous it is. Then,
I gathered other information like, what type of industries are the most polluting and
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how? More importantly, I searched for information about projects/efforts done before
that helped in cleaning the environment from such phenomenon because this would
help a lot in knowing what similar efforts could be done in the future as well.
By the end of my secondary research, I harvested as much raw information as
possible, however I had to screen, organize and merge them in order to include them
in my paper, starting with the most intriguing and ending with the least.
Literature Review:
One might ask how exactly does the industrial waste harm the citizens?
From my conducted research, I have found that Hussein I. Abdel-shafy, and Aly
Raouf O. stated in "Wastewater Management in Egypt." that more than 15 factories
discharge their wastes directly to pure water such as lakes through pipelines and that
both huge and small-private industries, such as: sugar mills, hydrogenated oil, onion
drying factories, paper, metal, chemical, textile, pharmaceutical, oil, soap and
petroleum contribute to the damage. Further more, when they have calculated the
amount discharged into the Nile per year they have found it shocking, 550 Mmm3
/year. Similar statistics were provided by EEPP in a Site Investigation Report:
Awadallah Lead Smelter. They discussed in this report how is one of the heavy metals
(lead) emitted into the atmosphere surrounding the source and how far it could go.
Referring to figure 1, you can see the different concentrations of lead in the area
surrounding the smelter, which is the source. The non-green areas in the figure are the
lead smelters (the blue and yellow spots) and the green parts are the areas surrounding
them. The blue color indicates highly concentrated contamination of lead and then the
concentration decreases as the color fades or gets brighter. As you can see, there is a
huge area affected by the smelters including water as the lead in the air sometimes
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deposits on the surface of the water then it gradually deposits in the sediments at the
bottom and sides of the canal and stay there forever. This means that these hazardous
substances make there way into the habitants systems anyway. One might ask how
could they know that this detected lead is the lead coming out from the smelters and
not from the car exhausts? Well, “This map was constructed by measuring the stack
emissions from lead smelters. This data was processed through dispersion model
software to identify the spreading model of the lead in the ambient atmosphere
surrounding the smelters. This spread depends on first, lead concentration in the stack
emission, second, wind speed, wind direction and the air pressure” Said Dr. Fatheya
Soliman (Environmental consultant). As mentioned by Ed. Sohair R. Mehanna in The
Environmentalist by Nicholas Hopkins, respiring these toxic emissions could lead to
terrible headaches, which influence the citizens’ behavior badly. For example, they
are more apt to fights and crimes than people who respire less contaminated air.
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Fig.1
Ramadan, A. B. A., and Jeffery Steevens. Suggested in "Air Pollution
Monitoring and Use of Nanotechnology Based Solid State Gas Sensors in Greater
Cairo Area, Egypt” one of the possible reasons why is the industrial pollution a
growing phenomenon until now. They have said that the pollution rate is higher than
the rate of monitoring or controlling it, which means that the efforts done so far to
observe and diminish such pollution are not enough and that in order to stop this
growth there has to be more Research and Development (R&D) done.
Yet, there some efforts done to clean such damage could not be forgotten. For
instance, it was mentioned by Adham Ramadan R., Per Kock, and Amani Nadim in
"Nasreya: A Treatment and Disposal Facility for Industrial Hazardous Waste in
Alexandria, Egypt: Phase I.", that there has been a facility for managing industrial
Hazardous Waste(HW) in Alexandria, which was set as an example for initiating and
promoting HW management. What is the “Nasreya” facility? It is an integrated
facility which helps in managing the industrial HW in Alexandria. Mainly, it targets
inorganic industrial wastes discharged in the soil. The authors mentioned in this
article that there are industrial HW generated all around Alexandria and are not well
treated as Egypt’s lacking proper treatment and disposal services. I think that’s what
triggered the idea of the Nasreya Facility in the first place. The Facility contains the
following: First, a secure landfill second, solar evaporation ponds third, Phsyco-
chemical treatment and fourth, solidification and interim storage facility. Although
this project was a good example of HW management, still they mentioned that it
wasn’t 100 percent successful.
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According to the Millennium Science and Engineering, Chemonics
International, and USAID in Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-
Up in Qalyoubia, there has been another project, which Contributed in eradicating
such phenomenon. The project is called: LIFE Lead Pollution Cleanup Project in
Qalyoubia. The general aim of the project is to encourage the residents in highly
polluted areas to improve their living conditions. One of the parts that have intrigued
me the most in the process of cleaning or managing the wastes is how they’re
transported. There are regulations and rules that have to be carefully taken into
consideration while transporting the wastes. Some of them are; hazardous waste is
only to be transported in transport vehicles owned by operators possessing a transport
permit; vehicles are to be equipped with necessary safety equipment; drivers must be
trained on handling emergencies; and vehicles must be labeled.)
According to other sources, there are stages before the cleaning process, some
of which is the stage of locating/identifying exactly where and what are the emissions.
As this investigation/identification process proceeds for years, by now it became
easier for the investigators to detect and predict what are the most common emissions
from industries. For instance, it has been claimed so far that lead is the most
widespread heavy metal/hazardous emission in Cairo as they have found that “The
secondary lead smelting industry produces elemental lead and lead alloys by
reclaiming lead, primarily from scrap automobile and truck batteries” (MSEA, and
EEAA), and that lead is most likely to be found in spots near iron and steel factories
(Lasheen, M. R., and N. S. Ammar.). Furthermore, they have found that other
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emissions such as Zn, Cu, Cd, Ni, Co and Pb, are mostly discharged from fabric and
plastic factories (Abdel-Sabour, M. F., Rabie, F. H., Mostafa, T., and Hassan,S.A.).
Methodology:
The Secondary research helped me a lot in knowing the danger imposed on us
by industrial pollution and what kind of efforts done so far for eradicating such
phenomenon yet, I still needed to test the public’s awareness of such phenomenon and
know whether they are aware of the efforts done or not, maybe find some
confirmation to the facts that I have gathered through my secondary research.
Therefore, I decided to conduct a survey. However, the purpose of such survey wasn’t
all about that, I also wanted to gather some other suggestions or solutions from people
that could help in eradicating such phenomenon. The survey that I have conducted is
made up of two sections, the questionnaire and the interview. Each of them was
designed to serve different purposes as I had many questions in mind to be answered.
The questionnaire had 10 specific questions, starting with the general ones and
ending with the most important, for instance one of the most important questions was;
“if you had a chance, would you contribute in eradicating the industrial pollution? If
yes, then how?” Most of the other questions were short multiple choices as I found it
more convenient, focused and easy for the people to answer. One of the purposes of
this questionnaire was to test the people’s awareness of my topic and to collect
possible solutions/ways to eradicate/clean such phenomenon as well so, I needed to
add questions like, “Did you ever notice the damage caused by industries?” that
would be answered by either yes or no. Even more explicit questions such as “Are
you aware of the industrial pollution? If yes, state what kind of pollution are you
aware of?” Would reveal the level of their awareness and would show how credible
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their suggested solutions. I had to add questions like “Did you notice any contribution
to clean or diminish such damage? And if yes from whom then?” to see if they knew
previous projects/plans, which helped in eradicating the industrial pollution, because
if they knew about some of these projects then this means that they were successful
ones. As the questions tend to go from general to specific, the last question is the most
related to my research question /thesis. In this last question, I explicitly asked people
how could they help in eradicating industrial waste. After I finished composing my
questionnaire, I posted it online on Facebook and even mailed it to some people.
However, I have selected most of my audience carefully; for instance I didn’t only
post the questionnaire for my friends and family, but also to science majors and
people who already work in the environment field to gather as useful responses as
possible. Refer to appendix B for more details about the questions.
After I have sent my questionnaire out for the public, I went to interview
people from the auditing/inspecting department in the Egyptian Environmental Affair
Agency (EEAA), one of the institutions that monitors Industrial pollution and helps in
eradicating it. One of the jobs done by this auditing team is keeping track of the
amount of waste emitted by most industries, as the excessive amount of industrial
emissions, whether in air, water or soil, is what causes pollution. Therefore, if they
have found a factory that is exceeding the legalized amount of waste during their
inspection, they start to take actions towards preventing these industries/factories
from polluting the environment and at the same time clean the waste in an
environmentally friendly way. The main reason behind choosing one of these people
as my interviewee is because they have many, real life, experiences with industrial
pollution in greater Cairo. Also most of the actions that they have taken before to get
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rid of /prevent industrial pollution might be successful therefore should be used by
other people in other polluted areas.
Furthermore, the interviewee gave me details about the role of his team in
finding and eradicating industrial waste. Since they use the technique he mentioned in
almost all factories/cases, he only stated the story of one of the polluting factories as
an example. Refer to appendix B for details.
Discussing the Results:
Well, after I have finished my primary research things became much clearer. I
found out that 97% of the people who answered the questionnaire are aware of
industrial pollution in greater Cairo, and 70% of them claimed that they notice the
change in air quality, in terms of smell and color, when they are near any industrial
cluster. One of the findings of my secondary research that was confirmed by the
results of my primary research is that industrial pollution could affect water, soil and
air as, the results showed that 87% of the people who answered the questionnaire
noticed the damage in those three media (air, water and soil pollution from
industries). This questionnaire also revealed the successes of some of the
efforts/projects mentioned before in the literature review section as I have found that,
14% have noticed some of the donor’s projects, 14% noticed individual efforts, 27%
noticed Ngo’s efforts and 46% noticed other efforts. Since they are mentionable, then
they must have been successful. One of those donors’ projects mentioned before was
the LIFE LEAD project done by the USAID.
I found even more confirmations to my findings as I compared the interview
statements with the ones mentioned in my literature review section. As I reviewed
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Torra cement factory story, I have found it a confirmation to the fact that the pollution
rate is higher than the rate of monitoring or controlling it, which one of the reasons,
mentioned before, why industrial pollution is a growing phenomenon until now. This
is because the interviewee mentioned that their rate of taking the right decision was
slower than the rate of the accumulating bypass.
Many of the suggestions made by the people who answered the questionnaire
were very objective and useful. Some were general, For instance, some people stated
“donating money”, “Through any charity comity or an organization”, “Raising
Awareness”, “I am ready to provide man hours or financial contribution to help
eradicate this problem” probably, and others were more specific like, “By eradicating
pollution at source By end of pipe treatment”, “Help the industrial enterprises to find
the appropriate funding mechanisms to apply the environmental projects”, “enforce
legislation for reducing pollution”. This indicates that a reasonable number of people
are aware of such dangerous phenomenon. Even some could actually initiate projects
like the ones mentioned before in the literature review section as, they are willing to
dedicate some time for fighting such phenomenon. Those suggestions helped me the
most with my research question as they are considered answers/ways to deal with the
damage that has been done by industrial pollution.
Conclusion:
Several weeks ago, industrial pollution was just one of million thoughts that
came to my mind by the time Dr. Michael Gibson, my Rhetoric 201 course instructor,
told us that we should choose a topic that interests us to make a research about. I had
no idea that out of all the other thoughts, this would be the most intriguing to me.
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Fortunately, it turned out that it’s not only the most intriguing but also the most
beneficial. I now consider the minute I choose to search about industrial pollution in
greater Cairo was a turning point, maybe it didn’t feel like one at that time but it does
now anyway. This is because this research has opened my eyes about facts that I have
chosen to turn my back on in the past. At school, we learned that industrial pollution
is a common phenomenon in almost all countries worldwide, however they never told
us details and statistics so we don’t freak out, but At university its different, all what
they do is freak us out! I mean, why wouldn’t I be freaked out when I find out that,
because of industries, every day millions of poisonous particles might be entering my
system through breathing, eating or drinking and could possibly kill me.
Unfortunately, it’s not only me, but also millions of people are and will be affected
the same way if such phenomenon is not stopped. However, this shock has made me
realize that its time to give such issues more attention before its too late.
This topic as well introduced me to one of the governmental institutions
(EEAA), which has been one of my concerns for a long time, to see how does the
governmental facilities/institutions work. Also it was the first time for me to be given
the information first hand and not only browse for such information on the Internet.
Yet, if I had more time I would have interviewed more people and gathered
more information, and be more shocked! Unfortunately, because of the timing I had to
stop posting my questionnaire in order to have time to collect and analyze it
accordingly, I didn’t collect the number of responses that I have aimed for, only 30-
40% of what I have targeted before posting my questionnaire. Furthermore, the
security status at that time wasn’t stable as we were waiting for the presidential
elections results and were afraid of the reaction of the defeated party so, interviewing
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people in the streets wasn’t advisable. Also, I live far away from the avenue where I
interviewed people that’s why I didn’t go several times to interview more people and
collect more information.
Both my secondary and primary research answered my research question.
Through my secondary research I have found that there are many successful efforts
and projects done before that could be replicate or even referred to in the future in
order to deal with such phenomenon. However, my primary research made me realize
that the youth could always be the tool to seek a cleaner environment. This is because
the results showed that most of them are aware of such phenomenon and are willing
to dedicate money, time and effort to eradicate such phenomenon. Especially if they
still have the same will they had during the 25th of January revolution.
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Appendix A
Questionnaire
Industrial pollution has been a widespread phenomenon in Egypt since the 20th
century; therefore it is time to give it some attention before its too late.
Here is a questionnaire about a few things concerning industrial pollution:
1. Do you live near a factory or an industrial cluster?
2. If not, have you ever been near one before?
Yes, 10%
No, 90.30%
Yes, 70%
No, 30%
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3. If yes, did you notice the diff. in the air quality?
4. What difference did you notice?
Yes, 93%
No, 7%
colour , 4%
smell, 12%
Both (colour and smell
, 80.80%
Other , 4%
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5. Are you aware of the industrial pollution?
6. If yes, state what kind of pollution are you aware of?
7. Did you notice any contribution to clean or diminish such damage?
Yes, 97%
No, 3%
Air, 10%
Water, 3%
Soil, 0.00%
All the above , 87%
Yes, 52%
No, 48%
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8. If yes, from whom then?
9. If you had a chance, would you contribute in eradicating the industrial pollution?
10. If yes, then how?
• Refuse to live in compounds near any industrial areas .we have to
create laws thathe.
• Raising Awareness
• I don't know
Local NGOs, 27%
Donors, 14%
Individuals,
14.00%
Other, 46%
Yes, 70%
No, 30%
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• The party responsible for any source of pollution should answer for
what they have done .. and make sure that the damage they have
caused to the environment is undone by any means necessary
• Help the industrial enterprises to find the appropriate funding
mechanisms to apply the environmental projects
• enforce legislation for reducing pollution
• By eradicating pollution at source By end of pipe treatment By people
awareness of the pollution hazard
• Through any charity comity or an organization.
• Donating money
• by contributing in any projects reducing industrial pollution
• I am ready to provide man hours or financial contribution to help
eradicate this problem
• Developing systems to reduce the emitted industrial wastes Proposing
legislation to enforce the usage of these systems in factories
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Appendix B
Interview
Q1) What does the inspection department do when finding any source
of industrial pollution?
After the team is prepped with the appropriate equipment, we go on regular
inspection visits to factories. First we make sure that the workers are working in a
safe and healthy working environment. Then, we start searching for pollution. I’ll tell
you the story of one of the cement factories as an example. After we check up on the
working environment, we start taking samples from the water used in the production
process and from the chimneys from which some gases are emitted into the air. After
that, these samples are taken to the laboratory to find out the pollutants concentration
and compare with the permissible limits of the applicable laws (air, water and soil).
Then we check upon the type of fuel used, which is either heavy oil or natural gas.
Incase of natural gas used, less pollutants are emitted, but incase of heavy oil uses,
sulphur compounds (Sox) are emitted to the ambient air, which is toxic. We also, in
case of the cement industry, search for the bypass which is which is an unneeded,
alkaline, toxic, byproduct produced during the cement production process. The main
problem is when this bypass is thrown away in an in-environmentally sound way
because by then it could be easily widespread in the air and inhaled by people since
its particulates are very fine and small.
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Q2) After the inspection process, what steps do you take in order to
clean this damage and even prevent those substances from polluting the
environment?
In the case of the bypass substance, we oblige the factory to take this dust-like
substance and burry in an environmentally friendly way in underground cells after
adding some water on it in order to prevent it from spreading into the air again and
pollute it. But, in case of the emissions from the stacks, we as well oblige them to
install gas scrubbers and dust collectors.
If they didn’t abide by these regulations/steps, we then start to take serious
actions such as charging fines and send their cases to court. However, usually the
court cases are lost so, we stick most of the time to charging fines so they apply
whatever rule we have applied on them in order to prevent their emissions from
polluting the environment anymore.
Q3) Did any of the polluting factories abide by the department’s
rules/regulations?
Yes, of course. A great example would be Torra cement factory. This factory
has been throwing bypass for decades and no one (authorities) took a wise action to
clean/remove it therefore, it had a very bad impact on the environment, however, now
since the penalties became stricter (ex. Doubled fines) the factory owners wouldn’t
afford any more loss therefore they started abiding by rules.
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Annotated Bibliography
Abdel-Sabour, M. F., Rabie, F. H., Mostafa, T., and Hassan,S.A. "Impact of
Industrial Wastewater Disposal on Surface Water Bodies in Mostord Area,
North Greater Cairo." Full TextElectronic Journal List. N.p., n.d. Web. 11
June 2012.<http://tr6rt9pf7u.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z3 88-
2004>.
From this study I have gathered information about how could we know which industries discharge waste and pair each industry with certain wastes. The authors have stated that, seasonally, water samples were collected from different areas around industries in order to identify the wastes discharged from them. For this study, they have found that the results so far indicated thast fabric factories mostly discharge: Zn, Cu, Cd, Co and Pb, while the steel factories discharge Fe and Mn. As well as the plastic factories discharge Ni. Abdel-Shafy, Hussein I., and Raouf O. Aly. "Wastewater Management in Egypt."
SpringerLink. Springer Science Business Media, n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://www.springerlink.com/content/0661x18440601172/>.
This report focused more on the damage made by industrial wastes in the river Nile. The problem assessed here is that the agricultural and agrochemical drains as well as the industrial drains are mixed up; therefore, the agricultural lands receive wastewater. This problem could be an answer to one of my research sub questions, which is: Is it that huge to give it such attention and care? In other words, to what extent does the industrial waste damage the environment? Obviously industrial wastes could poison the population through their food. Some details are provided in this report such as the “the amount of industrial wastewater discharge into the Nile” which is 550 Mm3 /year. Wow! It also stated that both huge and small-‐private industries, such as: sugar mills, hydrogenated oil, onion drying factories, paper, metal, chemical, textile, pharmaceutical, oil, soap and petroleum contribute to the damage. Furthermore it stated that more than 15 factories discharge their wastes directly to the lake through pipelines. This means that if such damage is not diminished, if not abolished, the agriculture in Egypt will soon be doomed!
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EEPP. Site Investigation Report : Awadallah Lead Smelter. Rep. N.p.: n.p., 2002.
Print.
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This figure demonstrated the different concentrations of lead in Shoubra Al kheima. Description: The none green areas in the figure are the lead smelters ( the blue and yellow spots) and the green parts are the areas surrounding them. The blue color indicates highly concentrated contamination of lead and then the concentration decreases as the color fades or gets brighter. As you can see, there is a huge area affected by the smelters including water as the lead in the air sometimes deposits on the surface of the water then it gradually diffuses. This means that the habitats at this area have high percentage of lead and poisonous emissions in their system either through respiring or through drinking. This demonstrates one way of how could industries damage the environment.
Hopkins, Nicholas S. "Living with Pollution in Egypt." The
Environmentalist. Ed. Sohair R. Mehanna. 2003 ed. Vol.
23. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 17-28. Print.
This study discussed how much the population could be affected badly by pollution, which is mostly due to industrial wastes. It stated that respiring the bad emissions in the air lead to terrible headaches, which influence the citizens’ behavior badly. For example, they are more apt to fights and crimes than people who respire less contaminated air. This could help me state in my research what harm does the industrial waste impose on the society to support my stance which would be to give this issue more attention. Lasheen, M. R., and N. S. Ammar. "Speciation of Some Heavy Metals in River Nile
Sediments, Cairo, Egypt." SpringerLink. Springer Science Business Media,
n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://wwsw.springerlink.com/content/g87533n5371t8v23/>.
This study discussed important aspects concerning cleaning and finding industrial wastes. It showed how the location of wastes help us detect its source, for instance they have found that heavy metals such Lead are found in spots near iron and steel factories. So, we can conclude that the steel industry should be one of the targeted industries for observation and cleaning from heavy metals. Then it discussed how the “behavior and concentration” of metals found in residue could help in “detecting source, degree of pollution, and distribution mechanisms in aquatic environment.” Furthermore, the article proposed some methods for controlling or cleaning industrial pollution such as, using aquatic ecosystems and enforcing stricter environmental regulations.
Millennium Science and Engineering, Chemonics International, and USAID.
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Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-Up in Qalyoubia. Tech.
N.p.: n.p., 2005. Print.
This report is the most interesting source I have found recently because it discussed a very successful project that was done by the USAID to treat some damage done by industries. The damage mentioned in this report was the lead discharged from the lead smelters mainly in Shoubra El Kheima, which is a very crowded and highly populated area. The project is called: LIFE Lead Pollution Cleanup Project in Qalyoubia. The general aim of the project is to encourage the residents in such highly polluted areas to improve their living conditions. One of the parts that have intrigued me the most in the process of cleaning or managing the wastes how they’re transported. There are regulations and rules that have to be carefully taken into consideration while transporting the wastes. Some of them are: first, hazardous waste is only to be transported in transport vehicles owned by operators possessing a transport permit; second, vehicles are to be equipped with necessary safety equipment; third, drivers must be trained on handling emergencies; and fourth, vehicles must be labeled.
“Such smelters are surrounded by sensitive, highly residential areas such as Shoubra El Kheima, which contains 3 million inhabitants. Ismailia road as well as the Ismailia canal, which is branched from the river Nile at this particular area and runs toward the east for 200 kilometers, carries the contaminated dust, which is deposited on the road, from the smelters for long distances through their motion” said Dr. Fatheya Soliman, Technical Manager of LIFE Lead.
I think that this would be a huge reason to motivate or drive people to pay attention to the industrial hazardous waste as it is easily transferred and carried through air, water and soil. It’s like a flu that makes its way to a healthy body.
MSEA, and EEAA. "Air Quality." Air Quality. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/english/main/accomp1.asp>.
This article stated that that the lead smelting industry is one of the main sources of emissions in Cairo; “The secondary lead smelting industry produces elemental lead and lead alloys by reclaiming lead, primarily from scrap automobile and truck batteries” This is useful to my research as it highlighted one of the major industries that emit one of the most poisonous heavy metal.
MSEA, and EEAA. "The Improvement of Air Quality." The
Improvement of Air Quality. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
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<http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/english/main/accomp21.asp>.
This Article included one of the methods to prevent the pollution from reaching the populates, which is to formulate “a plan of the relocation of the polluting activities outside the populated areas, among them the smelters, quarries, potteries, crackers, brick factories and coal and lime facilities as well as 1206 mining factories and 6000 textiles factories.” In other words, is to try and move the industries away from the crowded places to diminish its bad effect on the habitants.
Ramadan, A. B. A., and Jeffery Steevens. "Air Pollution Monitoring and Use of
Nanotechnology Based Solid State Gas Sensors in Greater Cairo Area,
Egypt." Nanomaterials: Risks and Benefits. Ed. Igor Linkov. N.p.: n.p., n.d.
N. pag. Print.
In this chapter, Ramadan stated that “The development of a suitable method for monitoring the pollution causing sources has not followed at the same pace” which means that the pollution rate is higher than the rate of monitoring or controlling it. This might be very important to my research as it indicates that the efforts done so far to observe and diminish the pollution, caused by industrial wastes, are not enough so, that’s why there has to be more Research and Development (R&D) done. He also stated that the Nanotechnology has been applied to many industrial and domestic fields to try and monitor the factors of pollution or try and find what possibly could be the industrial wastes that contribute to the pollution. Example: “applications for gas monitoring systems, gas leak detectors in factories, fire and toxic gas detectors, ventilation control, breath alcohol detectors, and the like”.
As a whole this abstraction could go under “ what could be done to monitor this kind of pollution.
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Ramadan, Adham Ramadan R., Per Kock, and Amani Nadim. "Nasreya: A
Treatment and Disposal Facility for Industrial Hazardous Waste in
Alexandria, Egypt: Phase I." Nasreya: A Treatment and Disposal Facility
for Industrial Hazardous Waste in Alexandria, Egypt: Phase I. N.p., n.d.
Web. 11 June 2012. <http://wmr.sagepub.com/content/23/2/167>.
I found this article interesting and relevant to my questions (elaborate) as it describes/demonstrates what is the “Nasreya” facility; it is an integrated facility which helps in managing the industrial hazardous waste (HW) in Alexandria. Mainly, it targets inorganic industrial wastes discharged in the soil. The author has mentioned in this article that there are industrial HW generated all around Alexandria and are not well treated as Egypt’s lacking proper treatment and disposal services. I think that’s what triggered the idea of the Nasreya Facility in the first place. The Facility contains the following: 1) A secure landfill 2) Solar evaporation ponds 3) Phsyco-‐chemical treatment 4) solidification and interim storage facility. However, the article highlighted that this project is challenged by the absence of adequate facilities and services needed for HW management. Yet, that doesn’t mean that it has failed to fulfill its purpose , on the contrary, the Nasreya center should always be an example that promotes HW management and an encouragement to continue what they have started.
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Draft #4 (Final Draft)
Let it be a Clean Start
Industrial pollution has been a threat to Egypt’s environment since the 20th
century. This phenomenon awakened with the transfer of industries from the
developed countries to the developing ones, such as Egypt. Unfortunately, bringing
those industries to become environmentally friendly seemed an impossible mission
for the State to accomplish. Therefore, discharges and wastes of those industries
continued to build up with a faster pace than removing/cleaning them, ending up with
a dramatic environmental threat as those wastes are predominantly poisonous
substances which go into the water, soil and air. Hence, we can conclude that the
damage would be widespread and would reach the citizens any way either through
respiring, eating or drinking. So, as I found this issue inevitable, I decided to conduct
research about the industrial pollution in Egypt. My research will address a wide
range of questions, for instance, how does the pollution affect people, what are the
repercussions of industrial pollution on surrounding media, be it water, soil or air,
how far are the people aware of such damaging phenomenon, and associated threats
imposed on their lives? and above all,, how can this threat be dealt with? In other
words, what efforts could be done to eradicate, or contain such a phenomenon?
Despite seeing my research fruitful, I believe it could have been better if I
hadn’t face a lot of obstacles/limitations. The most obvious or common limitation was
the time, it affected my questionnaire results a bit; as some of my targeted people
were reluctant to fill out academic surveys in their summer time. Accordingly, I only
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collected thirty-one responses. However, I have selected most of my audience
carefully; for instance I didn’t only give out the questionnaire to my friends and
family, but also to Science majors and people who already work in the environment as
to have, as much as possible, well-rounded responses to my questionaire. Definitely
the country’s bad security status was a limitation for me when it came to interviewing
people because I was willing to go to some industrial areas that are surrounded by
habitats and ask inhabitants about the effects of the industrial pollution on them. This
would have helped me a lot as I would have collected information directly from the
people and not from other witnesses.
The searching process:
By the time I had decided on my topic, I had already started my
secondary/desk research. I went to the American University in Cairo (AUC)’s library
to search for books that discussed my topic and found two relevant books, however
they were generic and had little to provide about environmental issues in Cairo in
specific. Having had my topic exclusively focused on greater Cairo and other few
governorates, I decided not to use the books that I had found. Further to this, my
mom, who has been an expert in the field of the Environment for thirty years now,
advised me not to expect much from Environmental books as they are usually boring
and less rich with facts and statistics compared to online journals and articles.
Accordingly, I decided to browse AUC’s Library One online search for more
interesting sources. First I started to search on how industrial pollution could harm the
people exposed to it, which was one of the important aspects I wanted to include in
my paper as, in order to attract attention to such phenomenon, people should be
informed of how damaging and dangerous it is. Then, I gathered other information
like, what type of industries are the most polluting and how? More importantly, I
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searched for information about projects/efforts done before that helped in cleaning the
environment from such phenomenon because this would help a lot in knowing what
similar efforts could be done in the future as well. In fact, sources I gathered from this
online database were very useful and rich with updated facts and statistics.
By the end of my secondary research, I harvested as much raw information as
possible, however I had to screen, organize and merge them in order to include them
in my paper, starting with the most intriguing and ending with the least.
Literature Review:
One might ask how exactly does the industrial waste harm the citizens?
From my conducted research, I have found that Hussein I. Abdel-shafy, and Raouf O.
Aly stated in Wastewater Management in Egypt that more than fifteen factories
discharge their wastes directly into pure water such as lakes through pipelines and that
both huge and small private industries, such as: sugar, hydrogenated oil, onion drying,
paper, metal, chemical, textile, pharmaceutical, oil, soap and petroleum factories
contribute to the damage. Furthermore, the authors stated that the calculated
discharged amount into the Nile per year was shockingly: 550 Mmm3/year. Egypt
Environmental Policy Project (EEPP) in a Site Investigation Report provided similar
statistics: Awadallah Lead Smelter. They discussed in their report how one of the
heavy metals (lead) is emitted into the atmosphere surrounding the source and how far
it could go. Referring to figure 1, you can see the different concentrations of lead in
the area surrounding the smelter, which is the source. The non-green areas in the
figure are the lead smelters (the blue and yellow spots) and the green parts are the
areas surrounding them. The blue color indicates highly concentrated contamination
of lead and then the concentration decreases as the color fades or gets brighter. As
gleaned in the figure, there is a huge area affected by the smelters including water as
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the lead in the air sometimes deposits on the surface of the water then it gradually
deposits in the sediments at the bottom and sides of the canal and stay there forever.
This means that these hazardous substances make their way into the habitants’
systems. One might ask how could they know that this detected lead is the lead
coming out from the smelters and not from the car exhausts?
Well, This map was constructed by measuring the stack emissions from lead
smelters. This data was processed through dispersion model software to
identify the spreading model of the lead in the ambient atmosphere
surrounding the smelters. This spread depends on first, lead concentration in
the stack emission, second, wind speed, wind direction and the air pressure,
said Dr. Fatheya Soliman (Environmental consultant).
As mentioned by Ed. Sohair R. Mehanna in The Environmentalist by Nicholas
Hopkins, respiring these toxic emissions could lead to terrible headaches, which
influence the citizens’ behavior badly. For example, they are more apt to fights and
crimes than people who respire less contaminated air.
Fig.1
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Ramadan, A. B. A., and Jeffery Steevens suggested in Air Pollution
Monitoring and Use of Nanotechnology Based Solid State Gas Sensors in Greater
Cairo Area, Egypt, one of the possible reasons why industrial pollution is a growing
phenomenon until now. They have said that the pollution rate is higher than the rate
of monitoring or controlling it, which means that the efforts done so far to observe
and diminish such pollution are not enough and that in order to stop this growth there
has to be more Research and Development (R&D) done.
Yet, there are some efforts done to clean such damage, which could not be
forgotten. For instance, it was mentioned by Adham Ramadan R., Per Kock, and
Amani Nadim in "Nasreya: A Treatment and Disposal Facility for Industrial
Hazardous Waste in Alexandria, Egypt: Phase I.", that there has been a facility for
managing industrial Hazardous Waste(HW) in Alexandria, which was set as an
example for initiating and promoting HW management. What is the “Nasreya”
facility? It is an integrated facility which helps in managing the industrial HW in
Alexandria. Mainly, it targets inorganic industrial wastes discharged in the soil. The
authors mentioned in this article that there are industrial HW generated all around
Alexandria and are not well treated as Egypt’s lacking proper treatment and disposal
services. I think that’s what triggered the idea of the Nasreya Facility in the first
place. The Facility contains the following: First a secure landfill, second solar
evaporation ponds, third Phsyco-chemical treatment and fourth solidification and
interim storage facility. Although this project was a good example of HW
management, they still mentioned that it wasn’t 100 percent successful.
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According to the Millennium Science and Engineering, Chemonics
International, and USAID in Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-
Up in Qalyoubia, there has been another project, which contributed in pollution
cleanup. The project is called: LIFE Lead Pollution Cleanup Project in Qalyoubia.
The general aim of the project is to encourage the residents in highly polluted areas to
improve their living conditions. One of the parts that have intrigued me the most in
the process of cleaning or managing the wastes is how they’re transported. There are
regulations and rules that have to be carefully taken into consideration while
transporting the wastes. Some of them are: hazardous waste is only to be transported
in transport vehicles owned by operators possessing a transport permit; vehicles are to
be equipped with necessary safety equipment; drivers must be trained on handling
emergencies; and vehicles must be labeled.
According to other sources, there are stages before the cleaning process, one
of which is the stage of locating/identifying exactly where and what are the emissions.
As this investigation/identification process proceeds for years, by now it became
easier for the investigators to detect and predict what are the most common emissions
from industries. For instance, it has been claimed so far that lead is the most
widespread heavy metal/hazardous emission in Cairo as they have found that “The
secondary lead smelting industry produces elemental lead and lead alloys by
reclaiming lead, primarily from scrap automobile and truck batteries” (MSEA, and
EEAA), and that lead is most likely to be found in spots near iron and steel factories
(Lasheen, M. R., and N. S. Ammar.). Furthermore, they have found that other
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emissions such as Zn, Cu, Cd, Ni, Co and Pb, are mostly discharged from fabric and
plastic factories (Abdel-Sabour, M. F., Rabie, F. H., Mostafa, T., and Hassan,S.A.).
Methodology:
The secondary research helped me a lot in knowing the danger imposed on us
by industrial pollution and what kind of efforts have been done so far to eradicate
such a phenomenon, yet I still needed to test the public’s awareness of such a
phenomenon and know whether they are aware of the efforts done or not, maybe
finding some confirmation of the facts that I have gathered through my secondary
research. Therefore, I decided to conduct a survey. However, the purpose of a such
survey wasn’t all about that, but I also wanted to gather some other suggestions or
solutions from people that could help in eradicating such a phenomenon. The survey
that I have conducted is made up of two sections, the questionnaire and the interview.
Each of them was designed to serve different purposes as I had many questions in
mind to be answered.
The questionnaire had ten specific questions, starting with the general ones
and ending with the most important, for instance one of the most important questions
was: “If you had a chance, would you contribute in eradicating the industrial
pollution? If yes, then how?” Mosst of the other queries were short multiple-choice
questions as I found it more convenient, focused and easy for the people to answer.
One of the purposes of this questionnaire was to test the people’s awareness of my
topic and to collect possible solutions/ways to eradicate/clean such phenomenon as
well, so I needed to add questions like, “Did you ever notice the damage caused by
industries?” that would be answered by either yes or no. Even more explicit questions
were added such as “Are you aware of the industrial pollution? If yes, state what kind
of pollution are you aware of?” answers to this question would reveal the level of
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their awareness and would show how credible are their suggested solutions. I had to
add questions like “Did you notice any contribution to clean or diminish such
damage? And if yes from whom then?” to see if they knew previous projects/plans,
which helped in eradicating the industrial pollution, because if they knew about some
of these projects then this means that they were successful ones. As the questions tend
to go from general to specific, the last question is the most related to my research
question/thesis. In this last question, I explicitly asked people how they could help in
eradicating industrial waste. After I finished composing my questionnaire, I posted it
online on Facebook and even e-mailed it to some people. I selected most of my
audience carefully; for instance I didn’t only post the questionnaire for my friends and
family, but also for Science majors and people who already work in the
Environmental field to gather as useful responses as possible. Refer to Appendix B
for more details about the questions.
After I sent my questionnaire out to the public, I went to interview people
from the auditing/inspecting department in the Egyptian Environmental Affair
Agency (EEAA), one of the institutions that monitors Industrial pollution and helps in
eradicating it. One of the jobs done by this auditing team is keeping track of the
amount of waste emitted by most industries, as the excessive amount of industrial
emissions, whether in air, water or soil, is what causes pollution. Therefore, if they
have found a factory that is exceeding the legalized amount of waste during their
inspection, they start to take actions towards preventing these industries/factories
from polluting the environment and at the same time clean the waste in an
environmentally friendly way. The main reason behind choosing one of these people
as my interviewee is because they have many, real life, experiences with industrial
pollution in greater Cairo. Also most of the actions that they have taken before to get
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rid of /prevent industrial pollution might be successful therefore should be used by
other people in other polluted areas.
Furthermore, the interviewee gave me details about the role of his team in
finding and eradicating industrial waste. Since they use the technique he mentioned in
almost all factories/cases, he only stated the story of one of the polluting factories as
an example. Refer to appendix B for details.
Discussing the Results:
Well, after I have finished my primary research things became much clearer. I
found out that 97% of the people who answered the questionnaire are aware of
industrial pollution in greater Cairo, and 70% of them claimed that they notice the
change in air quality, in terms of smell and color, when they are near any industrial
cluster. One of the findings of my secondary research that was confirmed by the
results of my primary research is that industrial pollution could affect water, soil and
air as the results showed that 87% of the people who answered the questionnaire
noticed the damage in those three media (air, water and soil pollution from
industries). This questionnaire also revealed the successes of some of the
efforts/projects mentioned before in the literature review section as I have found that
14% have noticed some of the donor’s projects, 14% noticed individual efforts, 27%
noticed NGO’s efforts and 46% noticed other efforts. Since they are memorable by
the public then, they must have been successful to some extent. One of those donors’
projects mentioned before was the LIFE LEAD project done by USAID.
I found even more confirmations of my findings when I compared some
statements from the interview with the ones mentioned in my literature review
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section. As I reviewed the Torra cement factory story, I found it a confirmation of the
fact that the pollution rate is higher than the rate of monitoring or controlling it, which
is one of the reasons, as mentioned before, why industrial pollution is a growing
phenomenon until now. This is because the interviewee mentioned that their rate of
taking the right decision was slower than the rate of the accumulating bypass. In other
words, by the time they took the decision of cleaning the damage made by this
factory, the damage was already too much.
Many of the suggestions made by the people who answered the questionnaire
were very objective and useful. Some were general, for instance, some people stated
“donating money”, “Through any charity comity [sic] or an organization”, “Raising
Awareness”, “I am ready to provide man hours or financial contribution to help
eradicate this problem” probably, and others were more specific like, “By eradicating
pollution at source By end of pipe treatment”, “Help the industrial enterprises to find
the appropriate funding mechanisms to apply the environmental projects”, “enforce
legislation for reducing pollution”. This indicates that a reasonable number of people
are aware of such dangerous phenomenon. Even some could actually initiate projects
like the ones mentioned before in the literature review section as, they are willing to
dedicate some time for fighting such phenomenon. I have considered those
suggestions as possible answers to my question as they are considered answers/ways
to deal with the damage that has been done by industrial pollution.
Coming to a conclusion:
Several weeks ago, industrial pollution was just one of a million thoughts that
came to my mind by the time Mr. Michael Gibson, my Rhetoric 201 course instructor,
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told us that we should choose a topic that interests us to make a research about. I had
no idea that out of all the other thoughts, this would be the most intriguing to me.
Fortunately, it turned out that it’s not only the most intriguing but also the most
beneficial. I now consider the minute I chose to search about industrial pollution in
greater Cairo a turning point. Maybe it didn’t feel like one at that time but it does now
anyway. This is because this research has opened my eyes about facts that I have
chosen to turn my back on in the past. At school, we learned that industrial pollution
is a common phenomenon in almost all countries worldwide, however they never told
us details and statistics so we wouldn’t freak out, but at university it’s different. All
they do is freak us out! I mean, why wouldn’t I be freaked out when I find out that,
because of industries, every day millions of poisonous particles might be entering my
system through breathing, eating or drinking and could possibly kill me?
Unfortunately, it’s not only me, but also millions of people are and will be affected
the same way if such phenomenon is not stopped. However, this shock has made me
realize that its time to give such issues more attention before its too late.
If I had more time I would have interviewed more people and gathered more
information, and be more shocked! Unfortunately, because of the timing I had to stop
collecting responses from the public so I’d have time to finalize and analyze them.
Accordingly, I didn’t collect the number of responses that I have aimed for, only 30-
40% of what I have targeted before posting my questionnaire. Furthermore, the
security status at that time wasn’t stable as we were waiting for the presidential
elections results and were afraid of the reaction of the defeated party so, interviewing
people in the streets wasn’t advisable. Also, I live far away from the avenue where I
interviewed people that’s why I didn’t go several times to interview more people and
collect more information.
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However, this topic introduced me to one of the governmental institutions
(EEAA), which has been one of my concerns for a long time, to see how does the
governmental facilities/institutions work. Also it was the first time for me to be given
the information first hand and not only browse for such information on the Internet.
Both my secondary and primary research answered my research question.
Through my secondary research I have found that there are many successful efforts
and projects done before that could be replicate or even referred to in the future in
order to deal with such phenomenon. However, my primary research made me realize
that the youth could always be the tool to seek a cleaner environment. This is because
the results showed that most of them are aware of such phenomenon and are willing
to dedicate money, time and effort to eradicate such phenomenon.
When this paper is published, I would like the people, especially those youth
mentioned before, to use it as a reason/chance to take an action. Of course, by the
time they are finished with the literature review section, they’d be aware of how
dangerous industrial pollution is. Therefore, they have to consider it one of the threats
that should be abolished especially that after the 25th revolution, most Egyptians seek
a better life.
First, they have to initiate awareness campaigns and informative programs
especially for the poor and the ignorant so most Egyptians would be aware that they
are being threatened by such a phenomenon and share in eradicating it. Second they
should aid NGOs who are specialized in fighting such a phenomenon either
financially or physically. For instance, fresh graduates should work in such NGOs to
fight industrial pollution rather than work for a multinational for the sake of getting a
high salary. Third, they should also help the state in achieving this goal if not through
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NGOs, it could be through volunteering groups. For instance, those groups could go
on inspecting visits with the EEAA auditing department to double the effort that could
be done. Maybe volunteered engineers could help in designing environmentally
friendly machines, networks for the state’s environmental organizations so they could
work in synchronicity, or even advanced programs, which could detect the polluting
factories. Las but not least, after achieving their goal, which is clearing our land from
industrial pollution, they should maintain the efforts that they have done through
continuous check ups, regular machines maintenance, updating status to public…etc.
Of course this would not be done in a fortnight. This would at least take from four to
five years as the percentage of the ignorant is very high, therefore the first step would
take a lot of time, yet the rest is easy as long as the youth/people/public have the will
to change this threat into a strength.
Speaking of which, I just went to a scoping sessions where an industrial
pollution problem was discussed. The polluting source was The Delta Steel factory,
the problem was that this factory’s caused a lot of pollution throughout the past
decade therefore, one of the new environmental companies ENVIGLOBE,
Environmental Global, came with a great solution for stopping such damage from
happening again. ENVIGLOBE was founded a couple of years ago and had
difficulties while surviving the economic turbulence that took place since the 25th of
January revolution, when I talked with one of its owners they told me that this is just
the time for this industry, environmental firms, to boom especially after the revolution
as people now are most apt to change than ever.
If you are interested in fighting industrial pollution and serving the environment, you
could collaborate with such companies as ENVIGLOBE: www.enviglobe.com.
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Appendix A
Questionnaire
Industrial pollution has been a widespread phenomenon in Egypt since the 20th century; therefore it is time to give it some attention before its too late. Here is a questionnaire about a few things concerning industrial pollution:
11. Do you live near a factory or an industrial cluster?
12. If not, have you ever been near one before?
13. If yes, did you notice the diff. in the air quality?
14. What difference did you notice?
15. Are you aware of the industrial pollution?
16. If yes, state what kind of pollution are you aware of?
17. Did you notice any contribution to clean or diminish such damage?
18. If yes, from whom then?
19. If you had a chance, would you contribute in eradicating the industrial pollution?
20. If yes, then how?
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Appendix B
Interview
Q4) What does the inspection department do when finding any source
of industrial pollution?
After the team is prepped with the appropriate equipment, we go on regular
inspection visits to factories. First we make sure that the workers are working in a
safe and healthy working environment. Then, we start searching for pollution. I’ll tell
you the story of one of the cement factories as an example. After we check up on the
working environment, we start taking samples from the water used in the production
process and from the chimneys from which some gases are emitted into the air. After
that, these samples are taken to the laboratory to find out the pollutants concentration
and compare with the permissible limits of the applicable laws (air, water and soil).
Then we check upon the type of fuel used, which is either heavy oil or natural gas.
Incase of natural gas used, less pollutants are emitted, but incase of heavy oil uses,
sulphur compounds (Sox) are emitted to the ambient air, which is toxic. We also, in
case of the cement industry, search for the bypass which is which is an unneeded,
alkaline, toxic, byproduct produced during the cement production process. The main
problem is when this bypass is thrown away in an in-environmentally sound way
because by then it could be easily widespread in the air and inhaled by people since
its particulates are very fine and small.
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Q5) After the inspection process, what steps do you take in order to
clean this damage and even prevent those substances from polluting the
environment?
In the case of the bypass substance, we oblige the factory to take this dust-like
substance and burry in an environmentally friendly way in underground cells after
adding some water on it in order to prevent it from spreading into the air again and
pollute it. But, in case of the emissions from the stacks, we as well oblige them to
install gas scrubbers and dust collectors.
If they didn’t abide by these regulations/steps, we then start to take serious
actions such as charging fines and send their cases to court. However, usually the
court cases are lost so, we stick most of the time to charging fines so they apply
whatever rule we have applied on them in order to prevent their emissions from
polluting the environment anymore.
Q6) Did any of the polluting factories abide by the department’s
rules/regulations?
Yes, of course. A great example would be Torra cement factory. This factory
has been throwing bypass for decades and no one (authorities) took a wise action to
clean/remove it therefore, it had a very bad impact on the environment, however, now
since the penalties became stricter (ex. Doubled fines) the factory owners wouldn’t
afford any more loss therefore they started abiding by rules.
El Gamal, Hisham. Personal Interview. June 2012
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Annotated Bibliography
Abdel-Sabour, M. F., Rabie, F. H., Mostafa, T., and Hassan,S.A. "Impact of
Industrial Wastewater Disposal on Surface Water Bodies in Mostord Area,
North Greater Cairo." Full TextElectronic Journal List. N.p., n.d. Web. 11
June 2012.<http://tr6rt9pf7u.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z3 88-
2004>.
From this study I have gathered information about how could we know which industries discharge waste and pair each industry with certain wastes. The authors have stated that, seasonally, water samples were collected from different areas around industries in order to identify the wastes discharged from them. For this study, they have found that the results so far indicated thast fabric factories mostly discharge: Zn, Cu, Cd, Co and Pb, while the steel factories discharge Fe and Mn. As well as the plastic factories discharge Ni. Abdel-Shafy, Hussein I., and Raouf O. Aly. "Wastewater Management in Egypt."
SpringerLink. Springer Science Business Media, n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://www.springerlink.com/content/0661x18440601172/>.
This report focused more on the damage made by industrial wastes in the river Nile. The problem assessed here is that the agricultural and agrochemical drains as well as the industrial drains are mixed up; therefore, the agricultural lands receive wastewater. This problem could be an answer to one of my research sub questions, which is: Is it that huge to give it such attention and care? In other words, to what extent does the industrial waste damage the environment? Obviously industrial wastes could poison the population through their food. Some details are provided in this report such as the “the amount of industrial wastewater discharge into the Nile” which is 550 Mm3 /year. Wow! It also stated that both huge and small-private industries, such as: sugar mills, hydrogenated oil, onion drying factories, paper, metal, chemical, textile, pharmaceutical, oil, soap and petroleum contribute to the damage. Furthermore it stated that more than 15 factories discharge their wastes directly to the lake through pipelines. This means that if such damage is not diminished, if not abolished, the agriculture in Egypt will soon be doomed!
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EEPP. Site Investigation Report : Awadallah Lead Smelter. Rep. N.p.: n.p., 2002.
Print.
This figure demonstrated the different concentrations of lead in Shoubra Al kheima.
Description: The none green areas in the figure are the lead smelters ( the blue and yellow spots) and the green parts are the areas surrounding them. The blue color indicates highly concentrated contamination of lead and then the concentration decreases as the color fades or gets brighter. As you can see, there is a huge area affected by the smelters including water as the lead in the air sometimes deposits on the surface of the water then it gradually diffuses. This means that the
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habitats at this area have high percentage of lead and poisonous emissions in their system either through respiring or through drinking. This demonstrates one way of how could industries damage the environment.
Hopkins, Nicholas S. "Living with Pollution in Egypt." The
Environmentalist. Ed. Sohair R. Mehanna. 2003 ed. Vol.
23. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 17-28. Print.
This study discussed how much the population could be affected badly by pollution, which is mostly due to industrial wastes. It stated that respiring the bad emissions in the air lead to terrible headaches, which influence the citizens’ behavior badly. For example, they are more apt to fights and crimes than people who respire less contaminated air. This could help me state in my research what harm does the industrial waste impose on the society to support my stance which would be to give this issue more attention. Lasheen, M. R., and N. S. Ammar. "Speciation of Some Heavy Metals in River Nile
Sediments, Cairo, Egypt." SpringerLink. Springer Science Business Media,
n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://wwsw.springerlink.com/content/g87533n5371t8v23/>.
This study discussed important aspects concerning cleaning and finding industrial wastes. It showed how the location of wastes help us detect its source, for instance they have found that heavy metals such Lead are found in spots near iron and steel factories. So, we can conclude that the steel industry should be one of the targeted industries for observation and cleaning from heavy metals. Then it discussed how the “behavior and concentration” of metals found in residue could help in “detecting source, degree of pollution, and distribution mechanisms in aquatic environment.” Furthermore, the article proposed some methods for controlling or cleaning industrial pollution such as, using aquatic ecosystems and enforcing stricter environmental regulations.
Millennium Science and Engineering, Chemonics International, and USAID.
Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-Up in Qalyoubia. Tech.
N.p.: n.p., 2005. Print.
This report is the most interesting source I have found recently because it discussed a very successful project that was done by the USAID to treat some damage done by industries. The damage mentioned in this report was the lead discharged from the lead smelters mainly in Shoubra El Kheima, which is a very crowded and highly populated
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area. The project is called: LIFE Lead Pollution Cleanup Project in Qalyoubia. The general aim of the project is to encourage the residents in such highly polluted areas to improve their living conditions. One of the parts that have intrigued me the most in the process of cleaning or managing the wastes how they’re transported. There are regulations and rules that have to be carefully taken into consideration while transporting the wastes. Some of them are: first, hazardous waste is only to be transported in transport vehicles owned by operators possessing a transport permit; second, vehicles are to be equipped with necessary safety equipment; third, drivers must be trained on handling emergencies; and fourth, vehicles must be labeled.
“Such smelters are surrounded by sensitive, highly residential areas such as Shoubra El Kheima, which contains 3 million inhabitants. Ismailia road as well as the Ismailia canal, which is branched from the river Nile at this particular area and runs toward the east for 200 kilometers, carries the contaminated dust, which is deposited on the road, from the smelters for long distances through their motion” said Dr. Fatheya Soliman, Technical Manager of LIFE Lead.
I think that this would be a huge reason to motivate or drive people to pay attention to the industrial hazardous waste as it is easily transferred and carried through air, water and soil. It’s like a flu that makes its way to a healthy body.
MSEA, and EEAA. "Air Quality." Air Quality. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/english/main/accomp1.asp>.
This article stated that that the lead smelting industry is one of the main sources of emissions in Cairo; “The secondary lead smelting industry produces elemental lead and lead alloys by reclaiming lead, primarily from scrap automobile and truck batteries” This is useful to my research as it highlighted one of the major industries that emit one of the most poisonous heavy metal.
MSEA, and EEAA. "The Improvement of Air Quality." The
Improvement of Air Quality. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/english/main/accomp21.asp>.
This Article included one of the methods to prevent the pollution from reaching the populates, which is to formulate “a plan of the relocation of the polluting activities outside the populated areas, among them the smelters, quarries, potteries, crackers, brick factories and coal and lime facilities as well as 1206 mining factories and 6000 textiles factories.” In other words, is to try and move the industries away from the crowded places to diminish its bad effect on the habitants.
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Ramadan, A. B. A., and Jeffery Steevens. "Air Pollution Monitoring and Use of
Nanotechnology Based Solid State Gas Sensors in Greater Cairo Area,
Egypt." Nanomaterials: Risks and Benefits. Ed. Igor Linkov. N.p.: n.p., n.d.
N. pag. Print.
In this chapter, Ramadan stated that “The development of a suitable method for monitoring the pollution causing sources has not followed at the same pace” which means that the pollution rate is higher than the rate of monitoring or controlling it. This might be very important to my research as it indicates that the efforts done so far to observe and diminish the pollution, caused by industrial wastes, are not enough so, that’s why there has to be more Research and Development (R&D) done. He also stated that the Nanotechnology has been applied to many industrial and domestic fields to try and monitor the factors of pollution or try and find what possibly could be the industrial wastes that contribute to the pollution. Example: “applications for gas monitoring systems, gas leak detectors in factories, fire and toxic gas detectors, ventilation control, breath alcohol detectors, and the like”.
As a whole this abstraction could go under “ what could be done to monitor this kind of pollution.”
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Ramadan, Adham Ramadan R., Per Kock, and Amani Nadim. "Nasreya: A
Treatment and Disposal Facility for Industrial Hazardous Waste in
Alexandria, Egypt: Phase I." Nasreya: A Treatment and Disposal Facility
for Industrial Hazardous Waste in Alexandria, Egypt: Phase I. N.p., n.d.
Web. 11 June 2012. <http://wmr.sagepub.com/content/23/2/167>.
I found this article interesting and relevant to my questions (elaborate) as it describes/demonstrates what is the “Nasreya” facility; it is an integrated facility which helps in managing the industrial hazardous waste (HW) in Alexandria. Mainly, it targets inorganic industrial wastes discharged in the soil. The author has mentioned in this article that there are industrial HW generated all around Alexandria and are not well treated as Egypt’s lacking proper treatment and disposal services. I think that’s what triggered the idea of the Nasreya Facility in the first place. The Facility contains the following: 1) A secure landfill 2) Solar evaporation ponds 3) Phsyco-chemical treatment 4) solidification and interim storage facility. However, the article highlighted that this project is challenged by the absence of adequate facilities and services needed for HW management. Yet, that doesn’t mean that it has failed to fulfill its purpose , on the contrary, the Nasreya center should always be an example that promotes HW management and an encouragement to continue what they have started.
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Works Cited
1. Abdel-Sabour, M. F., Rabie, F. H., Mostafa, T., and Hassan,S.A. "Impact of
Industrial Wastewater Disposal on Surface Water Bodies in Mostord
Area,North Greater Cairo." Full TextElectronic Journal List. N.p., n.d.
Web. 11 June
2012.<http://tr6rt9pf7u.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z3 88-
2004>.
2. Abdel-Shafy, Hussein I., and Raouf O. Aly. "Wastewater Management in
Egypt." SpringerLink. Springer Science Business Media, n.d. Web. 11
June 2012.
<http://www.springerlink.com/content/0661x18440601172/>.
3. EEPP. Site Investigation Report : Awadallah Lead Smelter. Rep. N.p.: n.p.,
2002. Print.
4. Hopkins, Nicholas S. "Living with Pollution in Egypt." The
Environmentalist. Ed. Sohair R. Mehanna. 2003 ed. Vol.
23. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 17-28. Print.
5. Lasheen, M. R., and N. S. Ammar. "Speciation of Some Heavy Metals in
River Nile Sediments, Cairo, Egypt." SpringerLink. Springer Science
Business Media, n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://wwsw.springerlink.com/content/g87533n5371t8v23/>.
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6. Millennium Science and Engineering, Chemonics International, and USAID.
Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-Up in
Qalyoubia.Tech. N.p.: n.p., 2005. Print.
7. MSEA, and EEAA. "Air Quality." Air Quality. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/english/main/accomp1.asp>.
8. MSEA, and EEAA. "The Improvement of Air Quality." The
Improvement of Air Quality. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/english/main/accomp21.asp>.
9. Ramadan, A. B. A., and Jeffery Steevens. "Air Pollution Monitoring and Use
of Nanotechnology Based Solid State Gas Sensors in Greater Cairo
Area, Egypt." Nanomaterials: Risks and Benefits. Ed. Igor Linkov.
N.p.: n.p., n.d.
N. pag. Print.
10. Ramadan, Adham Ramadan R., Per Kock, and Amani Nadim. "Nasreya: A
Treatment and Disposal Facility for Industrial Hazardous Waste in
Alexandria, Egypt: Phase I." Nasreya: A Treatment and Disposal
Facility for Industrial Hazardous Waste in Alexandria, Egypt: Phase I.
N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2012.
<http://wmr.sagepub.com/content/23/2/167>.
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