In Zahraa Al Maadi, south of Cairo, fires do not stop at night. Thick clouds of smoke from burning waste fill the air with a choking smell and seep into homes even when windows are closed. Despite repeated complaints, residents describe a slow government response while the danger to the most vulnerable grows.
Resident Marwa Mubarak tells Zawia3 about the daily struggle to protect her five-month-old baby, who has congenital heart and lung problems. “There were no fires before, but they have become a daily occurrence,” she says. “They begin around midnight and leave a choking smell and a dense black cloud that fills the air until morning.”
Her son underwent delicate open-heart surgery immediately after birth at the Magdi Yacoub hospital in Aswan. His condition requires careful care and protection from infections and strong odours that could affect his lungs or breathing. Doctors stressed the need to keep him away from pungent smells, she says, yet smoke enters their apartment, causing burning eyes and throats and making the baby struggle to breathe.
Mubarak runs air conditioners and keeps windows closed with heavy curtains, but says these measures cannot keep the smoke out. Sometimes she moves temporarily to her mother’s home in the same neighbourhood when the smell there is less intense.
“This is neither safe nor humane. We have ended up moving between two places simply to protect the baby from a deterioration in his health.”
Her elderly mother, who has chronic asthma, has also suffered a recent deterioration after inhaling the smoke, Mubarak says. “We are all paying the price of this pollution, and my child is paying the highest price. We need urgent action to stop this disaster before we actually suffocate.”
More than 200 complaints
The experience of Mubarak, her baby and her mother reflects a wider crisis affecting hundreds, potentially thousands, of Zahraa Al Maadi residents. They report thick smoke and pungent smells from waste of initially unidentified origin being burned almost daily since November 2024.
The precise sources had not been comprehensively established by an official investigation when residents began documenting the problem themselves. Over recent months they submitted more than 200 formal complaints. Zawia3 obtained complaint reference numbers and copies sent to the presidency, the Cabinet, the Environment Ministry, Cairo Governorate, the Maadi and Basateen districts and the government complaints portal.
The complaints demanded an immediate end to burning and identification of those responsible for environmental violations threatening thousands of people and raising fears of a quiet public-health disaster. Residents also launched an online campaign, “No to Waste Burning in Zahraa Al Maadi,” to draw attention to the daily impact on their health and lives.
Zahraa Al Maadi lies in southeastern Cairo and forms an urban extension of Maadi. Its predominantly middle-class population is estimated at more than 450,000. Hospitals, schools, universities and international educational institutions make the environmental crisis particularly consequential for daily life in the area.
Residents trace possible sources
Seven months after the crisis began, residents say they still breathe the same smoke each night. Pungent odours arrive around midnight and linger into the morning, with mounting physical and psychological effects. Frustration over the response prompted residents to trace possible sources themselves.
“The smell starts at midnight and continues until around seven in the morning,” resident Wagih Mohamed tells Zawia3. “It is a mixture of burning plastic and rubber, causing irritation in the eyes and throat and difficulty breathing. We live as though we are trapped inside our homes.”
He says hundreds of complaints to Maadi district and Cairo Governorate produced little response, leading residents to coordinate monitoring. “We obtained alarming information on the ground suggesting illegal activities that threaten everyone’s health and safety,” he says.
Mohamed identifies three suspected sources: the Al Akhwar area on the Ain Sokhna road, where he says waste is burned in the open daily and smoke reaches residential areas; a dump on the Saad Zaghloul axis, where he says waste is transported and unloaded without environmental oversight; and land opposite a gas company where rubble and waste are dumped and regularly set alight.
The smells have become unbearable, he says, worsening illness among patients and exhausting otherwise healthy residents. He also describes traffic hazards from heavy trucks speeding or driving against traffic on narrow residential streets, with accidents already recorded.
“Many of these vehicles have no registration plates, and their drivers move recklessly through the neighbourhoods,” Mohamed says. Residents cooperated with police to intercept one unregistered waste truck, he recounts; officers took it to the police station and filed an incident report.
“We demand an urgent, transparent investigation and an immediate end to these violations before they become a disaster that cannot be contained.”
A constitutional right to a healthy environment
Article 46 of the Egyptian Constitution, as amended in 2019, guarantees the right to a healthy environment and requires the state to take measures to protect it. Article 18 guarantees the right to health and comprehensive, quality health care.
Residents believe those rights have not been protected in their case. They call for an independent investigation committee including environmental experts and community representatives, with advanced air-quality measurements taken at night to establish the pollution’s sources.
After months of complaints, the Waste Management Regulatory Authority began addressing grievances the ministry had monitored on social media about daily fires and heavy smoke in Zahraa Al Maadi, following instructions from Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad.
Fouad commissioned a technical committee including the Waste Management Regulatory Authority, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency’s Greater Cairo regional branch, the New Urban Communities Authority, the New Cairo City Authority and environmental and waterways police to inspect the sites and identify harmful emissions.
According to the ministry’s May 13 statement on its official Facebook page, inspectors found that a residential project in New Cairo was disposing of waste at a site between the Wadi Degla protected area and the Sokhna–Hurghada road. The waste had caught fire, releasing smoke affecting neighbouring residential districts, particularly Zahraa Al Maadi.
The minister ordered the responsible company to cover the waste immediately to limit environmental and health impacts. She also instructed officials to provide emergency-response equipment through the Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Authority, coordinating with the deputy governor for the southern region.
The Environment Ministry said it was coordinating with the Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities Ministry on the legal and administrative measures needed against the company responsible.
The health risks of burning waste
Despite the ministry’s description of an urgent, immediate response, affected residents say smoke still fills the neighbourhood every night, with no tangible change. They report daily burning smells and say practical protection from waste-burning emissions, particularly those from plastics, remains absent.
World Health Organization guidance identifies unsafe waste treatment, including open burning, as a threat to neighbouring communities. Prolonged exposure to polluted air can harm respiratory and cardiovascular health, while some compounds released by uncontrolled burning are carcinogenic. Children, older people and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable.
Intensive-care and anaesthesia consultant Mostafa Mahmoud, who lives in the area, tells Zawia3 that burning waste and plastic in the open within a residential neighbourhood poses a real health threat. He warns that the smoke contains a mixture of harmful pollutants capable of worsening heart and respiratory conditions.
In describing the mechanism, Mahmoud referred to carbon dioxide replacing oxygen in the lungs. The relevant scientific distinction is that combustion smoke contains multiple pollutants: fine particles can damage the lungs, while carbon monoxide can impair the blood’s ability to carry oxygen. WHO identifies these among the pollutants of major health concern.
Mahmoud says polluted air affects healthy people as well as those already ill. Children are especially vulnerable because of their sensitive respiratory systems, alongside older people and people with asthma and allergies. “We are already noticing more cases of breathing difficulties and worsening chest conditions in the area,” he says.
“The danger is not just the smell, but the cumulative effect of daily exposure to this smoke.”
Burning plastics can release volatile organic compounds, some carcinogenic, Mahmoud adds. He argues that the environmental and health threat requires urgent action to protect residents.
The situation also implicates rights recognised internationally. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the right to an adequate standard of living for health and well-being, including food, housing and medical care. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognises the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and requires measures to improve environmental and industrial hygiene.
