This is one of he most inspiring innovations involving local communities I have read lately. A good example of how determination can help to overcome social barriers for acheiving environmental protection. The story has been published in Islam Online   By  Nehal Lasheen Translated By  Aisha El-Awady   Armed with few resources but with a very strong will, 13 villages in Al-Buhairah... [read more]

Source: IRIN news   DUBAI - Ahmad Issa, 41, has been fishing in Lake Maryut [also spelt Maryout or Marriout] near the port city of Alexandria for the last 30 years. Like thousands of other fishermen, Issa said he was constantly getting skin diseases caused by the polluted water. "I can't hold anything in my hands when my skin is infected. Doctors prescribe ointments, but even with them... [read more]

AEW- compiled from different news   In an amazing example of privatization of natural resources, news leaked from Uganda state that the source of the Nile River has fallen into the hand on an investor. According to a news article published at Allafrica website the Jinja District Land Board has given away the ownership of the land in the source of Nile to investment. Details are still scanty but... [read more]

Source: AFP   From blaring car horns to wedding parties, rising noise pollution in the 24-hour metropolis of Cairo has reached alarming levels, leading to hearing problems, irritability and even death. Living in the city centre, where noise levels reached an average of 90 decibels (dB) and never drop below 70 dB, was like spending all day inside a factory, a 2007 study by the Egyptian National... [read more]

By: Mohammad Yahia Published by: Islam Online     Every summer, over one million tourists flock to Alexandria, Egypt, to enjoy the sun and the beaches. The historic city, with its magical charm, is also home to four million people. But the beautiful fragile coastal city of the Mediterranean Sea stands to lose much from the imminent danger of climate change, and it may not even be Egypt's... [read more]

The dream of development in the Arab World is to manage to produce sustainable mechanisms to turn deserts into productive land on the long run without polluting it with pesticides and ending up in irreversible salinization of the land after a few years, let alone water resource depletion. Experiments are always important to study, and Egypt has emerged in the past few years with some very promising... [read more]

A huge national project to green the desert north of Cairo is still stirring some controversey from environmentalists. On the other hand it holds a lot of socio-economic and development potentional. This story tells the two points of view   Will Rasmussen Reuters   It looks like a mirage but the lush fields of cauliflower, apricot trees and melon growing among a vast stretch of sand... [read more]

It has always been known from global warming predictions scenarios that the Nile Delta region in Egypt is highly vulnerable to any expected rise in sea water levels due to climate change. This fact has pushed Egypt show high interest in climate change research and adaptation measures, unlike most Arab countries still stuttering with the political and economic hurdles against full engagement in climate... [read more]

Al Ahram Weekly 5-11 April 2007 Issue 839   Mohamed El-Hebeishy   Forty million years ago a vast area of the northern part of the Egyptian Western Desert was nothing but a sea. The whole of Fayoum was submerged; it was part of the Tethys Sea. In reality, Tethys Sea was so enormously big that some scholars call it Tethys Ocean rather than sea. When it finally receded, it formed what... [read more]

The majestic Nile River is among the world's most threatened 10 rivers according to a recent publication from the World Wide Fund (WWF).   The report, World's Top Rivers at Risk, released ahead of World Water Day (22 March), lists the top ten rivers that are fast dying as a result of climate change, pollution and dams. “All the rivers in the report symbolize the current freshwater crisis, which... [read more]

Another interesting report published by IPS on the occasion of world water day. This one goes deep to discuss water pollution and emerging scarcity in Egypt.   Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani CAIRO, Mar 22 (IPS) - Over the course of the 1990s, grave warnings were occasionally aired about the role of water in Middle Eastern power politics. In 1991, former Egyptian foreign minister Boutros... [read more]

This is a new publication from Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI):   Cooperative transboundary management of the Nile River Basin is an important public good in itself, as well as a source of regional public goods. Evidence suggests that investment in water resources management and development holds significant opportunities for economic development in the Nile Basin. While the economic... [read more]

Press Release from EMPOWERS The EMPOWERS Partnership has now available the 'Guidelines for Improved Local Water Governance'   The Guidelines consolidate the experience gained over the past 4 years in developing and testing a range of participatory planning tools for local water development. These have been developed through action research with a wide range of stakeholders in Egypt, Palestine,... [read more]

Derek Sands UPI February 20, 2007 CAIRO -- Egypt may soon harness the same physics that a child uses to burn an ant with a magnifying glass, to generate electricity from the sun, a move that reflects the growth of Concentrating Solar Power technology worldwide. Plans to build a 150 megawatt (MW) combined solar- and gas-powered electric plant near Cairo are part of a larger effort by Egypt, and... [read more]

From: Al Ahram Weekly   Amira El-Noshokaty   You hang onto it as if it were your saviour -- and sometimes it is. You never turn it off; those who care about you may be offended. You talk into it for hours, regardless of where you are -- you even tuck to into bed with you; you, and more than a sixth of the world's population -- 18 million in Egypt alone. The rapid development of the mobile... [read more]

Mahmoud Bakr- Al Ahram Weekly mbakr@ahram.org.eg Making profit while keeping the environment clean has always been a challenge for Egyptian enterprises. However, lately hopes have been high that such an equation could be worked as the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs (MSEA) praised the implementation, by small and big industrial enterprises, of clean production regulations. In January... [read more]

Amira El-Naqeeb Al Ahram Weekly Stuck in the congested traffic of Cairo has become a daily routine that car drivers must endure everyday. Nonetheless, the slow traffic would have been bearable were it not for the increasing pollution. For pedestrians and drivers, a breath of fresh air has become a scarce luxury. The number of pollutants has been increasing over the past few years; and the number... [read more]

The UNDP have launched a new and brilliant website based on the UNDP's water knowledge fair featuring some very interesting multimedia products on sustainable water management. http://www.waterfair.org/index.spring  The Knowledge base can be browsed by country where Jordan, Egypt and Morocco are currently listed with short films and other knowledge products available online. The water fair can... [read more]

The IDRC has published a new book entitled "People, Land and Water: Participatory Development Communication (PDC) for Natural Resource Management" which contains a number of case studies from Asia and Africa on communication for sustainable development. This book presents conceptual and methodological issues related to the use of PDC to facilitate participation amongst stakeholders in a variety... [read more]

In 2005 I participated in a regional research project supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation- Middle East office to develop a comparative study on the application of the UN Right to Water concept in four Arab countries; Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. Each country study aims to identify the scale of knowledge of and commitment to the UN concept in the region and is meant to identify the... [read more]

The Euro-Med Participatory Water Resources Scenarios (EMPOWERS) project has recently publish a booklet entitled "Recommendations for Policy and Practice. This brochure presents a package of recommendations for policy and practice on improved local water governance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).The recommendations were developed by 68 practitioners, researchers and policy makers representing... [read more]

Source: Middle East Online   By Alain Navarro - CAIRO For the seventh year running, a mysterious black cloud has appeared over Cairo, triggering serious health concerns for the polluted city's 16 million residents. Emissions of nitrogen dioxide, which cause serious health risks above certain levels, have reached record heights in the city, from the banks of the Nile, past the industrial... [read more]

Former USA president Bill Clinton has spent a lot of time and energy on resolving the political Middle East conflict but did not manage to have a tangible breakthrough during his 8 years presidency. If things go according to the plan detailed in the following article from Al-Ahram Weekly Mr Clinton can contribute to resolving another big problem in the region which is the air pollution in Cairo. For... [read more]

This is a news release from the "National Water Research Center" in Egypt:   The National Water Research Center (NWRC) in collaboration with the Arab Water Council (AWC) , under the patronage of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of Egypt, is organizing the Third Arab Water Regional Conference 2006 in Cairo, Egypt during the period 9 - 11 December, 2006.   The theme of the conference... [read more]

The Rwandan news agency has posted a news item stating that a new Nile River accord will be signed as early as the end of September or the begenning of October to replace the current accord that dates back to 1929. The report says that initial opposition by both Egypt and Sudan was eased with new clauses that provide security for both countries. Here is the complete text of the news feature: ... [read more]