Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad met on Monday with a delegation from the World Bank (WB), to follow up on the new programme’s preparations for combating air pollution and addressing climate change in Greater Cairo.
The WB delegation was headed by Ayat Soliman, the regional director for the WB Group’s Sustainable Development Department for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The meeting addressed the Egyptian government’s future measures to address air pollution and climate change, especially in the Greater Cairo region. They also addressed its plans and strategies to settle environmentally friendly electric vehicles to contribute to reducing emissions from conventional fuel vehicles in order to improve air quality in the Egyptian capital and its suburbs.
During the meeting, the Minister of Environment affirmed that the programme aims to implement a package of measures to address the issues of waste and vehicle exhausts that are negatively affecting citizens’ lives.
It also aims to work on finding appropriate solutions in cooperation with the WB, which would contribute to improving the air quality of Cairo, highlighting the importance of improving services provided to the citizen and to address them in an easy language.
According to Fouad, the Ministry of Environment has taken a number of measures to reduce pollution rates, the most important of which was implemented during the period of combating the air pollution storms this year. They have also completed the technical studies of the programme, which is one of the largest programmes in the Middle East to preserve the environment.
The meeting also reviewed future implementations in the field of solid waste, especially upgrading the efficiency of the waste management system in Cairo to contribute to this problem’s solution. The programme is implemented by the Ministry of Local Development.
