CAIRO: A 1,000 EGP ($131.06) fine will be imposed on those who throw garbage on public streets, as per the special environment law, Giza Governor Khaled el-Adly told Youm7 Monday.
He said that citizens will be alarmed before the application of the fine, adding that the General Authority for Cairo Cleaning and Beautification collects garbage in some areas up to three times daily. The fine is hoped to reduce the number of times garbage is collected from streets.
The law has already been applied in Cairo’s blue collar district of Warraq, according to Adly.
Egypt, which produces an estimated 40 tons of trash a day according to a 2012 World Bank report, and where trash is casually thrown on streets, has chronically struggled with its waste management.
Garbage collection in Cairo until the 1950s was mostly carried out informally by a group of rural-urban migrants living in an area northeast of Cairo called Zabaleen, dubbed “garbage people.”
Due to the increase in Egypt’s population, the Ministry of Environment contracted in the 1990’s local and international companies to collect garbage and recycle solid waste.