rhet 201 portfolio

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Mariam Ramadan

900102212

Rhetoric 201

Summer 2012

Mr. Michael Gibson

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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



5. Final paper Draft 4 (Final)…………………………..66

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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.

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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.

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Section I

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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??!!!

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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

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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.

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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.”

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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

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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 !!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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,

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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.

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Section II

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Presentation

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Section III

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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.

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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?

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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’

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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 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.

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Draft #2

Introduction:











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




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





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







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









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.

Ramadan41

Draft #3

Let it be a Cleaner Start











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




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,

Ramadan42

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



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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







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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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


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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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


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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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


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.


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


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.


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.


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



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


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.


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


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.


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6. Millennium Science and Engineering, Chemonics International, and USAID.

Environmental Assesssment for Lead Pollution Clean-Up in

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8. MSEA, and EEAA. "The Improvement of Air Quality." The



9. Ramadan, A. B. A., and Jeffery Steevens. "Air Pollution Monitoring and Use

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N. pag. Print.

10. Ramadan, Adham Ramadan R., Per Kock, and Amani Nadim. "Nasreya: A


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<http://wmr.sagepub.com/content/23/2/167>.

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