Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad announced that the Ministry is currently implementing a huge project aimed at reducing Egypt’s pollution, achieving cleaner production through the use of agricultural and municipal waste as an alternate fuel for industrial purposes or through energy efficiency projects.
The Ministry plans to focus on the Nile River and air pollution, she said.
The project is funded by the European Investment Bank, the French Agency, the European Union and the KfW, provided that the National Bank of Egypt will bear the burden of repaying all loans, she added.
The Minister expects that the project will pay off next year, and benefit large, medium, and small industrial facilities within the private and public sectors.
The budget, allocated by donors from international organizations working in Egypt in 2019/2020 in coordination with the United Nations Development Program is expected to reach about US$56.6 million, with an increase of about $23 million from last year equal to about 68 percent.
Yasmine pointed out that the expected results for this project are to adjust the conditions of industrial establishments and reduce pollution load by more than 75 percent, besides increasing the size of environmental financing programs, and providing soft financing packages for industries.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
