Ministers of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy, and Transportation, Hesham Arafat, held a roundtable with Karin Kemper, senior director for the Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Global Practice at the World Bank, on Tuesday.
Chief of the Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Authority and representatives of ministers of local development, environment, health, and investment presented in the meeting. The meeting aimed to address the issue of solid wastes’ management and limiting air pollution.
During the meeting, the minister of environment said that her ministry is aiming to reach optimum solutions for the environmental problems that are challenging the people. She added that discussing such issues in the meeting reflects keenness to solve these environmental crises, in cooperation with all concerned bodies.
The minister further said that having numbers on the level of the problems makes it easier to be solved, such as determining the cost of air pollution and shares of all sectors such as transportation, energy, and wastes in the problem.
She stressed that the integrated management for solid wastes and solving the wastes’ problem is one of the priorities of her ministry, pointing out that previous meeting with ministers and governors have discussed the problem and suggested solutions including partnership with the private sector.
According to Fouad decreasing air pollution will enhance air quality and achieve notable results by 2020.
Shaarawy pointed out that the technical support from the World Bank (WB) will help in building capabilities and transferring expertise. Arafat said that his ministry has an ambitious plan for decreasing carbon emissions through the transportation sector, and transforming towards urban public transportation.
Kamper reviewed the WB’s experience in helping nations solve environmental problems.
