Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad announced, on Sunday, the establishment of the national network to monitor industrial waste in the aquatic environment.
The network was established in accordance with Article 58 of Environmental Law No 4 of 1994, amended by Prime Ministerial Decree No 1963 of 2017.
The article stipulates that all establishments discharging into the aquatic environment are obliged to periodically monitor the components of the water and the pollutants.
Moreover, the law has also made it obligatory for all industrial facilities that discharge waste into the aquatic environment to install sensors that are connected to the national network for continuous monitoring. The national network belongs to the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), and aims to ensure consideration of standards.
Fouad highlighted the network’s importance, which is represented in the linking of all industrial facilities that discharge into the aquatic environment. This ensures that they are periodically and continuously monitored by the EEAA, which can take legal measures in the event of a violation occurring.
The minister further explained that the first group of industrial facilities were linked to the national network, represented by the Egyptian Sphinx Company for Oils and Detergents.
The network drains Lake Mariout, near Alexandria, and was linked to the ministry’s database and monitored and followed up in real time and continuously.
She added that a number of other companies located on Lake Mariout are completing their arrangements to join the network, including the Al-Amriya Petroleum Company, and the Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company (SIDPEC).
An inspection was also conducted for a Turkish company in Damietta, where it was linked on an experimental basis until the company finished its procedures with the drainage of the sewage station in Ras El Bar.
