The World Bank announces US$ 9.13 million grant to help Egypt address the problem of healthcare and electronic waste

The World Bank is providing Egypt with a $9.13 million grant from GEF to expand the Greater Cairo project, initially focused on air pollution. The grant targets healthcare and electronic waste management in response to environmental and health concerns, enhancing regulatory frameworks, data collection, monitoring, and awareness to improve waste handling and recycling capacities.

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With funds from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank announced that it will expand the scope of the Greater Cairo Air Pollution Management and Climate Project to help Egypt enhance the management of electronic and healthcare waste. Approved in 2021, the project was launched to reduce pollution in Greater Cairo. Originally, the focus was on reducing air and climate emissions from critical sectors such as automotive and solid waste and improving resilience to air pollution by strengthening the decision-making system.

The US$ 9.13 million grant will be allocated to address the increasing amount of healthcare and electronic waste generated in the country and to improve waste management practices, especially those associated with the release of uPOPs (unintentional persistent organic pollutants) into the environment, whose effects are extremely harmful to the human health and ecosystems.

Within the expanded scope, the project will support Egypt in its efforts to contain uPOPs, focusing on strengthening the sector’s ‘i) regulatory framework, ii) data collection iii) management and monitoring iv) awareness raising v) safe handling capacity and vi) capacity of management of special types of waste and recycling.’