The consequences are very severe of this air pollution because most of the pollutants are cancer-causing agents. It is estimated that every 2 out of 1000 people have a risk of developing serious respiratory disease or cancer. A bowl effect is created because of the lack of rain in the area, which means that the pollutants last longer in the area than they should. This means that a grey haze has settled over Cairo, and the sky isn’t blue anymore. The current population of Cairo is 12 million and from calculations it can be estimated that around half a million will develop respiratory diseases in the next 5-25 years resulting in their death. Assuming that everyone will receive treatment for their diseases the total cost will be 5 billion Egyptian pounds.
Land pollution
There are many different types of land pollution that occur in Cairo. The common ones include, fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, and sewage treatments. Improper collection inappropriate disposal of rubbish has also led to sever land pollution in some areas. Increasing urban development leads to deterioration of rubbish collection. In urban areas around 40% -70% of the waste is collected. Hospitals deposit around 209 tonnes of waste every day. 20% of this is hazardous. Annually 50,000 tonnes of hazardous waste is deposited annually in Cairo. Another problem is that a lot of the rubbish is just deposited in deserts due to lack of proper rubbish facilities, and in the case of hospitals a lot of the rubbish that is collected is not really sorted.
The table above shows the percentage of different types of waste material deposited at Cairo.
There are many consequences of all this land pollution and of this is land degradation, which when the quality of the land deteriorates, meaning that farmers can’t farm properly and this particularly important in Cairo as agriculture is quite important. Another problem of land pollution is when the pesticides are used they can become leached and this can often lead to eutrophication in a nearby lake killing all the animals that lived in the pond or lake. Large uncontrolled landfill sites can often lead to the growth of unwanted bacteria or insects.
Noise pollution
There are many causes of noise pollution in Cairo. One of these is the noise from mosques. There are 365 mosques in Cairo, and within a 2km radius one can count 40 loudspeakers. Upon prayer time different mosques at different times pronounce their prayers and so quite a large noise is made. Many resident have complained due to the noise. Another form of noise pollution is the constant traffic of cars and honking of horns loudly in residential areas, which has also been a nuisance for many residents. Finally since Cairo is quite a popular destination for tourists and due to it’s central location in the Middle East lots of airplanes come and go from Cairo and the noise of planes is quite loud.
The main consequences of noise pollution can be uncomfortable living standards, as you always have to put up with loud noise. Possibly in an extremely noisy area you could partially deaf in the ear leading to problems in life.
