It stinks! - said the Sphinx -- Pollution in Cairo

Set in the heart of old Cairo, Gamaliya is graced with thirteenth century beauty and bustling energy, but it is also drawn with the mark of decay. Strolling through the ancient streets the senses are compelled with the scent of cardamom, cinnamon and cloves competing with the foul smell of rotting puddles and reeking rubbish heaps. Muezzins fight to be heard against the appalling racket of the city. Glistening sandstone buildings hunker next to ruins and restoration projects. Gamaliya would probably be Cairo’s most beautiful quarter, perhaps the most beautiful of the entire Islamic world, if it weren’t for the terrible pollution here.

Deceptive beauty

Under the shadow of the minarets artisans mould beautiful decorative water-pipes, picture frames and copper or brass trays, which they offer up to the tourists. But all that glitters is not gold. The stench and the noise is unbearable, the metal dust and the toxic fumes that are released by the metalwork poison the lungs of the metal workers and destroy the fundaments of the majestic old buildings.

Even the tourists cannot miss the enormous piles of rubbish in the streets – piles which are also a cause of fighting between the residents and the rubbish collectors. They are also a massive problem for the future of this historic quarter. “If a pile of rubbish collects too close to one of the old monuments, then one spark will be enough and the whole place will go up in flames” warns archaeologist Moshen Rashad, a minister from the department of culture.

The battle against the rubbish, the stench and the pollution

A solution to the rubbish problem doesn’t exist. The reason: The inhabitants and the administration refuse to co-operate. Largely, because they are too busy blaming each other for the mess. Some hope though, does come from non-governmental organisations, who want to help the Egyptian authorities clean up the Gamaliya quarter and who want to offer the people better living and working conditions.

If only the inhabitants would play along. Cairo’s dwellers are skeptical about outside help, says Nader Negmelden, a co-worker of FEDA (Friends of the Environment and Development Association): “We’ve been trying to build up trust here for three years. There is a lot of distrust from the people. At the beginning they didn’t trust us at all. How could they? They didn’t even know what an NGO was.” The NGO volunteers need a lot of patience, especially when the people who live in the quarter won’t co-operate, but are happy to yell their complaints form the roof tops.

One big rubbish tip

“The whole of Egypt is awash with rubbish. Even the Sphinx is complaining.” A disgruntled inhabitant is angry with the authorities, for her the government is to blame for the exorbitant levels of pollution in Cairo.

The authorities are equally overwhelmed with the enormity of the rubbish problem. The district head of the old city of Cairo, Sherif Yunis, asks himself: “How many rubbish trucks should I send over there? Do you have any idea how many alleys and streets and side streets there are in that district, that I am supposed to govern. Thousands! It’s eight-and-a-half kilometer squared!”

Mother earth is bursting at the seams

Gamaliya is a microcosm, but the problems here reflect the unsustainable situation in Cairo. In the Middle Ages Cairo was called the ‘Mother of the Earth’. It’s one of the largest city in the world and the most highly populated city in the Arab world. Around 117 million people live here, although this is just an estimate as there is no census here. Egypt’s capital is growing and growing and with it so are the piles of rubbish.