{"id":16959,"date":"2025-05-31T19:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T17:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=16959"},"modified":"2026-10-24T15:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:01:24","slug":"zahraa-al-maadi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/zahraa-al-maadi\/","title":{"rendered":"Zahraa Al Maadi Is Choking: Waste-Burning Smoke Threatens Thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Zahraa Al Maadi district in southern Cairo, the fires do not die down at night. Thick clouds of smoke from the burning of waste rise up, filling the air with a suffocating smell, and their effects reach inside homes despite the closed windows. Despite repeated complaints, the government’s response remains slow, while the danger to the most vulnerable groups worsens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marwa Mubarak, a resident of the district, recounts to Zawia3 her daily ordeal with her infant, who is not yet five months old and suffers from a congenital defect of the heart and lungs. She says: “There were no fires before, but they have become daily. They start at around 12 midnight and leave behind a suffocating smell and a thick black cloud that fills the air until the morning hours.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The mother explains that her child underwent delicate open-heart surgery immediately after his birth, at the Magdi Yacoub hospital in Aswan, and is currently living in a critical state of health that requires careful care and the complete avoidance of any infection or strong smells that could affect the lungs or the respiratory system. She points out that the doctors stressed the need to protect him from exposure to any pungent smells, but the smoke seeps into the flat, causing a burning sensation in the eyes and throat and shortness of breath in the child.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mother tries to protect her little one by running the air conditioners and closing the windows with heavy curtains, but she stresses that these means have not succeeded in preventing the toxic smoke from seeping in. She adds: “Sometimes I have to leave my home and stay temporarily with my mother, who lives in the same area, when the smell there is less intense. But this situation is neither safe nor humane, and we have ended up moving between two places just to protect the child from a deterioration in his health.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The suffering was not limited to the infant: Marwa’s mother, an elderly woman who suffers from chronic asthma, was also affected, as inhaling the smoke has recently caused her health to deteriorate. Marwa concludes her conversation with Zawia3, saying: “We are all paying the price of this pollution, and my child is the one paying the highest price. We need urgent action to stop this disaster before we actually suffocate.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cases
Cases of respiratory diseases in the city of Zahraa Al Maadi are rising<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 200 complaints to no avail<\/b><\/h1>\n

The suffering of Dr Marwa Mubarak, her infant and her elderly mother goes beyond the bounds of an individual case, embodying a wider crisis endured by hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Zahraa Al Maadi’s residents because of thick smoke and pungent smells produced by the burning of waste of unknown origin, which has been set alight almost daily since November 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the direct threat this situation poses to public health, especially to the most vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and people with respiratory diseases, the source of that waste has still not been precisely identified, in the absence of a comprehensive official investigation by the relevant authorities. This absence pushed residents to act themselves: over the past months they submitted more than 200 official complaints, whose numbers and copies Zawia3 obtained, addressed to multiple executive and oversight bodies, including the Presidency of the Republic, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Environment, Cairo Governorate and the Maadi and Basateen districts, in addition to the government complaints portal.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those complaints included clear demands to stop the burning immediately and to reveal the party responsible for the environmental violations that threaten the lives of thousands and portend a silent health disaster in the heart of the capital. The residents also launched an online campaign under the title “No to waste burning in Zahraa Al Maadi”, through which they sought to highlight the suffocating daily impact that this smoke leaves on their health and way of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cases
Cases of respiratory diseases in the city of Zahraa Al Maadi are rising<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zahraa Al Maadi lies in the south-east of Cairo and is an urban extension of the well-known Maadi area. Most of its residents belong to the middle class, and their number is estimated at more than 450,000 people. The area contains a large number of vital facilities, such as hospitals, schools and universities, including international educational institutions, which heightens the sensitivity of the current environmental crisis and its direct effects on the quality of life in the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading: <\/b>Amendments to the Environment Law: company profits versus Egyptians’ health, who wins?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Deadly smells and sources of unknown origin<\/b><\/h1>\n

Although seven months have passed since the start of the crisis, the residents of Zahraa Al Maadi are still breathing the same smoke every night, amid a complete absence of any official action. As midnight falls, pungent smells and thick smoke invade the area, their effects lasting until the early hours of the morning and leaving mounting health and psychological harm, which pushed the residents to act themselves to trace the sources of the pollution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wagih Mohamed, a resident of the district, describes to Zawia3 what happens every night, saying: “The smell starts at twelve at night and continues until about seven in the morning. It is a mixture of burnt plastic and rubber, and it causes irritation of the eyes and throat and difficulty breathing. We live as if we are besieged inside our homes.” He stresses that hundreds of complaints were submitted to the Maadi district and Cairo Governorate without any response worth mentioning, which pushed residents to organise their efforts collectively to monitor the sources of the smoke.<\/span><\/p>\n

He continues: “We arrived at serious field information indicating the existence of illegal activities that threaten everyone’s health and safety.” He identifies three main points from which the toxic smoke is emitted: the first is the “Al-Akhwar” area on the Ain Sokhna road, where waste is burned in the open air daily, so that the smoke reaches residential communities directly. The second is a waste dump located on the Saad Zaghloul Axis, to which buried waste is transported and unloaded without any oversight or environmental compliance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The third source is a plot of land in front of the gas company, where quantities of rubble and waste are dumped and fires are regularly lit in the open, without the slightest regard for their effects on the district’s residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wagih points out that these smells have become unbearable, as they affect everyone without exception, multiplying the suffering of the sick and exhausting the healthy. He adds that the disaster is not limited to environmental pollution alone, but also includes serious traffic dangers: heavy transport lorries drive at excessive speed, and some of them drive against the traffic in narrow residential streets without any oversight worth mentioning, which has led to documented accidents.<\/span><\/p>\n

He says: “Many of those vehicles do not carry number plates, and their drivers move recklessly inside the neighbourhoods, and accidents have indeed happened. We cooperated with the police and set up an ambush for one of the lorries loaded with waste, which was not carrying plates, and the forces took it to the police station, where an official report of the incident was filed.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Wagih Mohamed concludes his testimony, saying: “What we live through every day reflects blatant official neglect, despite all these health and environmental dangers. We demand an urgent and transparent investigation, and an immediate halt to these violations before they turn into a disaster that cannot be contained.”<\/span><\/p>\n

A clean, healthy environment: a squandered constitutional right <\/b><\/h1>\n

The <\/span>Egyptian Constitution<\/span><\/a>, as amended in 2019, states in Article 46 that “every person has the right to a healthy, sound environment, and the state shall take the necessary measures to protect the environment.” Article 18 also states that “every citizen has the right to health and to integrated health care in accordance with quality standards.”<\/span><\/p>\n

On the ground, however, the residents of the Zahraa Al Maadi area believe that these rights are completely absent in their case. They are demanding the formation of an independent commission of inquiry, including environmental experts and representatives of the local community, to follow up on the complaints and to carry out night-time air measurements using advanced technologies to identify the source of the pollution.<\/span><\/p>\n

After seven months of repeated complaints, the Waste Management Regulatory Agency dealt with the complaints that the ministry had monitored on social media regarding the harm suffered by residents of the Zahraa Al Maadi area from daily fires and thick smoke that caused repeated environmental pollution, in response to the directives of Dr Yasmine Fouad, the Minister of Environment. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Minister of Environment tasked a technical committee of representatives of the Waste Management Regulatory Agency, the Greater Cairo regional branch of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, the New Urban Communities Authority, the New Cairo City Authority, and the Environment and Water Surfaces Police with inspecting the sites complained about and identifying the source of the harmful emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the ministry’s <\/span>statement<\/span><\/a>, published on 13 May this month on the ministry’s official Facebook page, the inspection showed that one of the residential projects in New Cairo was disposing of its waste at a site located between the Wadi Degla Protectorate and the Sokhna\u2013Hurghada road, which caused fires to break out and smoke to be emitted that affects the neighbouring residential districts, especially the Zahraa Al Maadi area.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Minister of Environment directed that the responsible company be obliged to cover the waste at the site immediately, to limit the environmental and health effects on citizens, and that immediate-intervention equipment be provided through the Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Authority, in coordination with the deputy governor of Cairo for the Southern Region. The Ministry of Environment also stressed in its statement that it is currently coordinating with the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities to take the necessary legal and administrative measures against the company responsible for this serious environmental damage.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading: <\/b>Environmentally friendly or deadly to humans: the trade in used cooking oil in Egypt<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Emissions and plastic burning: a danger bearing down on the area’s residents <\/b><\/h1>\n

Despite the statement issued by the Ministry of Environment regarding what it described as “urgent action and an immediate response” to the residents’ complaints, a number of those affected in Zahraa Al Maadi stress that smoke still fills the district’s sky every night, without any tangible change on the ground. They point out that the smells of burning pursue them daily, in the absence of practical steps to protect them and their families from the health dangers resulting from the burning of waste, particularly plastic materials.<\/span><\/p>\n

World Health Organization reports warn that chronic exposure to emissions from burning plastic poses a grave health threat, as it is linked to increased rates of respiratory diseases, heart disorders and the likelihood of cancer. The most vulnerable groups (children, the elderly and pregnant women) are the most exposed to these complications, which increases anxiety within families living amid these pollutants without institutional protection.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Mostafa Mahmoud, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care and a resident of the area, tells Zawia3: “What is happening in Zahraa Al Maadi, the burning of waste and plastic in the open air in the middle of a residential area, is a real health threat. The resulting smoke contains a mixture of toxic pollutants, most notably carbon dioxide, which enters the lungs during breathing instead of oxygen, exposing heart and respiratory patients to serious complications.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He adds: “Air saturated with these pollutants does not harm only the sick; it also affects the healthy. But children are the most affected, because of the sensitivity of their respiratory systems, as are the elderly and people with asthma and allergies. We are already noticing a rise in cases of shortness of breath and the worsening of chest diseases in the area.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He continues: “The danger lies not only in the smell, but in the cumulative effect resulting from daily exposure to this smoke. Burning plastic materials release volatile organic compounds, some of them carcinogenic, which constitutes an environmental and health danger that cannot be overlooked and must be stopped urgently to protect the residents.”<\/span><\/p>\n

This situation reflects a direct threat to the right to health and to a clean environment, a fundamental human right affirmed by international covenants. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in its twenty-fifth article, provided for the right of every human being to an adequate standard of living, encompassing health and well-being, including food, housing and medical care. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its twelfth article, also provides for the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and obliges states to take measures that ensure the improvement of environmental and health conditions for citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Zahraa Al Maadi, residents go to sleep to suffocating smells caused by the burning of waste: more than 200 complaints, an infant who underwent heart surgery, and an elderly woman suffering from asthma, yet the smoke is still rising, and official action is slower than the smoke itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,413],"tags":[],"kateb":[728],"class_list":["post-16959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations-en","category-society-en","kateb-shimaa-hamdy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/17561640026352202505110134463446.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16959"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24010,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16959\/revisions\/24010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16959"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=16959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}