Going Green with Cabs in Cairo
In an attempt to clean up the streets of Cairo, new traffic laws have been put into effect earlier this year.
Egypt will no longer renew licenses of taxis older than 20 years, which, according to Reuters, "may be the majority on the clogged, polluted streets of Cairo."
Drivers of antiquated vehicles have three years to replace their vehicles.
Older model taxis are blamed for Cairo's crash-inducing summer smog and traffic congestion (because they break down so often). For a country where one out of five people live on less than $1 a day, some say such drastic changes are unrealistic.
“I don’t understand how they expect us to live,” notes Mahmoud, a Cairo-based taxi driver. “It's not like we make a ton of money to go out and buy a newer car.” Ahmed, also a cab driver, agrees: "This is oppression," he says pounding the wheel of his 1972 Fiat 124. "They will slaughter us! How will I feed my kids?"
Egypt's Minister of Finance, Youssef Boutros Ghali, agrees: "Developing greener technology in all countries is costly, we don't have the money or the resources to spend on improving the environment. We have more pressing problems."
But other Egyptians are trying to persuade their fellow citizens that stringent environmental policies are worth the price. "From a financial point of view, the cost to improve the environment is a direct cost, but the benefits are indirect," says Samir Mowafi, general manager of Egypt's Regional Center for Environment Protection. "People don't consider the environment in their future because the benefits are intangible in the long-term."
Many Egyptians are less optimistic that the rule of law will govern on the streets of Cairo:
"It won't work for sure," says Adil Abdel Rahman, 48, a driver of a Soviet-era Lada. The police, he said, would likely target only the poor for fines, allowing the rich to dodge responsibility."Everyone plays with the law here," he said.
Indeed, as The Huffington Post's Brian Pellot observes, "going green here is typically pursued if and only if such developments produce a different shade of green: financial incentives."
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Going Green in Cairo
Enviromental issues are invisible to the naked eye for most people, especially for those living in developing nations who are concurrently battling the hardships of everyday survival. Most people in developing countries may not be educated in regards to the current environmental challenges we are facing, such as, vehicle emissions and greenhouse gases. The Egyptian government should educate the transportation work-force in Cairo (and throughout the country) about the long-term positive effects of such environmental policies, as well as, how ignoring potentially viable methods of preventing further damage to the Earth's atmosphere may prove to be more disasterous in the future. Furthermore, for the lowest-income taxi drivers, the government should allocate funds or set-up payment plans to help them finance newer vehicles.
Cab Restrictions: An Unfair Burden on the Poor
“See those lines on the road?” my best friend whispered to me during my first car ride in Cairo, “those are merely a suggestion.” We had just been hustled into the backseat of her wealthy, Egyptian Uncle's extravagant vehicle after leaving the airport on the hottest day of the year. Throughout my semester studying at The American University in Cairo I was overwhelmed by this enormous industrialized-city and its pungent combination of lawlessness, extreme pollution and stagnant heat. While something must be done to curtail Cairo’s pollution problems the current proposal outlined above unfairly burdens the poor. The Egyptian government should set a precedent by absorbing the burden of capitol for initial environmental sustainability conversions. Also, Egypt needs visionary leadership to overcome its key economic issues of corruption and inequality if it wants the new traffic laws to be effective. And finally, the developed world should fulfill its commitments to the Millennium Development Goal 8 and develop an international partnership for development by helping to fund sustainable development projects and address acts of environmental racism committed through the global market economy.
Cairo’s pollution problem is symptomatic of its larger political problems. Like in many developing countries inequality in Egypt is stark and undeniable. Just as the black cloud of pollution continuously lingers over the city, the shadow of the ominous Ministry of Finance building looms over The City of the Dead. The City of the Dead is an ancient cemetery that 1.5 million people call their home. As stated in the article, one out of five people live on less than 1$ a day in Egypt. Meanwhile, the elite live extravagant lifestyles resulting from extensive corruption. Egypt's business-elite should set a precedent by transforming their factories before asking the poor to restrict their economic activities.
The Millennium Development Goals are 8 goals that provide a framework to tackle poverty and the worlds main development challenges by 2015. Goal 8 states that we must develop a global partnership for development. Thus, the developed world must not abandon Egypt in its struggle to achieve environmental sustainability (Goal 7). The Egyptian government has shown an interest in environmental issues and the developed world should aid them whenever appropriate. Partnerships for sustainable development should be forged carefully through the global market economy.
Integrate "Going Green"
I completely agree with "Going Green In Cairo." Environmental issues are often masked by tangible hardships. However, the impacts these can have on our global environment in the long run are much more detrimental. Although it may seem like a painstaking exaggeration, if we gouge our environment now, later it will not be able to provide the resources we like to label "renewable," such as food.
As pertinent as this issue is, we must remember the health of our environment's inhabitants as well. Therefore, it is crucial that we make deep societal changes like exterminating Cairo's greenhouse gas based economy, with respect to the culture's pace of adaption. The ideas presented in "Going Green In Cairo," are a fine start to Cairo evolving in a healthy way based on it's relationship with their environment.
Green Policies that Actually Work
This legal instrument is unlikely to lead to the desired green outcome because taxi drivers might not afford to buy new cars. If the Egyptian government needs to create law that works for the people whose behavior it regulates.
If it really wants taxi drivers to switch to newer cars, they could make the process of buying new cars easier on the taxi drivers, possibly by buying new cars and selling them to taxi drivers in installments.
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