Fisherman Muhammed Nasser rows out on the Nile in a colorful wooden boat. The brown river water is full of plastic waste. In his hand he has a net which he uses to pick up plastic bottles. – It has become more difficult to make a living and catch fish. When I pick up rubbish, I get an income for the family and I help keep the Nile clean, says fisherman Nasser to the Reuters news agency. The fisherman in Cairo is part of the Very Nile recycling project. The fisherman Muhammed Nasser gets more money for collecting garbage than for the fish he had fished out of the dirty Nile water. Photo: Nadine Elwasly – The municipality does not collect rubbish from the residents of this island. Much of the waste ends up in the water, says the head of the project, Faruk Shafie, on the phone in Cairo. Through support from donors, he can pay the fishermen for every kilogram of plastic they deliver. He laughs dejectedly and says that they are recycling in a place where the residents have no choice but to throw their waste straight into the river. Through Very Nile, the 46 river fishermen collect 40 tonnes of plastic waste each year. They send the plastic to be recycled in Spain. The pigs recycled The recycling from Qurasaya Island is a drop in the ocean. Only 20 percent of the waste produced by the country’s 100 million inhabitants is sorted or recycled. The pigs in Cairo’s garbage city accounted for 85 percent of the country’s garbage disposal, but they were all slaughtered for fear of swine flu. The rubbish is either left in the streets or dumped out in the desert. Many ports in the Nile. The river transports a large part of the plastic waste, which in turn accumulates in the world’s oceans. – By picking, we only get a little way. We need to attack the problem from the production side. Less plastic must be produced and we should stop using certain types of plastic altogether, says Farouk on the phone from Cairo. Shafie in the Very Nile project says that we do not solve the world’s plastic problems by recycling. The most important thing is to reduce plastic production. Very Nile’s crew is at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh this week. Photo: Noha Sobh Very Nile’s crew is at the climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh to talk to other Egyptian activists about how to take small steps to improve the climate in Egypt. Activists arrested It is not a matter of course that climate activists and organizations are allowed to participate when climate change is discussed in Egypt. Long before the first delegates arrived at the Red Sea seaside resort, people who could be thought of as causing trouble have been arrested. To prevent street riots, the police have set up checkpoints in several places in Cairo. According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, 67 Egyptian activists have been arrested in several Egyptian cities in the weeks before the summit. People are stopped and have to show the contents of their phones, several have been arrested after posting criticism of the regime on social media. Egypt’s ambassador Amr Ramadan responds to the criticism as follows: “No one has been arrested in connection with the climate conference, neither activists nor others. The exception is if there is a breach of national laws or a disturbance of public order. The police must do their job to maintain safety and calm in the city so that government negotiators can focus on the mission of our collective work to save our planet from emissions.” Egypt’s ambassador to Norway, Amr Ramadan says that no activists have been arrested in connection with COP27. news has spoken to human rights activists in Cairo who say that people are afraid to demonstrate. Just publicly criticizing the jailing of activists could lead to trouble, so the activists are asking to be allowed to speak anonymously. – I don’t think we will see any demonstrations in Cairo during the summit. People don’t dare, says one activist. – What we say here, we cannot say outside Although there have been no protests in the capital, foreign climate activists with accreditation to COP27 demonstrated for climate and human rights in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday. The demonstration took place in an area controlled by the UN and not Egypt. People without accreditation did not have access. – What we say here cannot be said out loud outside the conference area, activist Asad Rehman from London told the New York Times. Ambassador Amr Ramadan replies to news: “Egypt is a free and open country, with more than 100 million people. We have more than 300 newspapers, more than 15 daily TV talk shows and social media, where people express their views freely. However, if you are involved in hate speech or calls to kill other people, it is a violation of Egyptian law. This is also the case in other countries”. COP27 sheds light – Climate summit sheds light on how oppressive the Egyptian government has become towards organizations and activists, says Adam Coogle in Human Rights Watch to news. According to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, it has become more difficult to be an activist in Egypt after the Arab Spring. He says that Egypt has a long history of oppressive regimes, but that in the years after the Arab Spring it has become more difficult to be a climate activist or human rights defender. Several NGOs have been labeled as foreign agents. One of the organizations that has been banned is precisely Human Rights Watch. This week it became known that HRW’s website can again be read in Egypt, after being on the banned list for five years. Through their mapping, one can, among other things, read about the 60,000 political prisoners who are in Egypt’s prisons. In the years after the Arab Spring, it has become difficult to be a climate activist or human rights defender. Several journalists who have written critical articles are in prison. Photo: MOHAMED EL-SHAHED / AFP Ban on demonstrations – Our application to take part in the climate summit was never answered. Therefore we cannot participate, says Nada Nadosh to news. CEWLA is one of many Egyptian and African organizations not allowed to attend COP27. The organization is an example of how Egyptian activists are treated. news has previously written about the women’s rights centre’s leader Azza Soliman. She has been arrested several times. She was not convicted, but accused of taking part in an illegal demonstration in 2015. When she was released, she was banned from leaving for several years. Her bank account has also been closed without explanation. – As a legal Egyptian organisation, we have to be careful about what kind of topics we speak about. We are already struggling to maintain our legal status which makes it possible to receive financial support, says Nadosh. – Our application to take part in the climate summit was never answered. Therefore we cannot participate, says Nada Nadosh to news. Photo: CEWLA During the reign of Sisi, there has been a heavy crackdown on activism. Both with arrests, threats, travel bans and laws that make it a criminal offense to demonstrate. Although Nadosh and CEWLA are not allowed to influence during the actual summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, they are still part of the COP27 Coalition. An initiative by activists from the global south who want a fairer climate fight. The Egyptian ambassador responds as follows to criticism from Human Rights Watch that the climate summit shows how oppressive the government has become towards organisations: “The climate conference is very important. It is unfortunate that someone has come to Sharm el-Sheikh with a different agenda; one that aims to distract participants from the reason they gathered. They are the same people who falsely claimed before the conference started that the Egyptian government is preventing them from registering, and we have refuted these claims, especially that Egypt is not responsible for registration, the UN is. Alaa Abdel Fattah has become the face of those fighting for democracy and the rule of law in Egypt. In recent weeks, he has been on hunger strike in prison. Photo: Al Youm Al Saabi / Reuters Hunger striker Alaa Abdel Fattah has become the face of those fighting for democracy and the rule of law in Egypt. The British-Egyptian activist has been imprisoned several times, most recently in 2019. In the run-up to the climate summit, he has gone on hunger strike in prison. With the help of two sisters and a large support apparatus, he has managed to mobilize opposition to Egypt’s lack of rule of law. His sister Sanaa Seif is at COP27 and held a separate press conference about her brother’s condition behind bars. The sister of the imprisoned Alaa Abdel Fattah, Sanaa Seif is at COP27 and held a separate press conference about her brother’s condition behind bars. Photo: THAIER AL-SUDANI / Reuters – I am worried that for him to die, but I respect his choice. I agree that it is not a life worth living, neither for him nor indeed for us as a family on the outside, Seif said according to the American broadcaster PBS. But today the news came that Fattah says in a letter to his family that he has now ended his hunger strike. – I have ended the strike. I can tell you everything on Thursday, he writes. – Isn’t it our country, our Nile? Muhammed Nasser steers the fishing boat back towards his house on the island of Qursaya. While the world’s politicians negotiate how to reach the climate goals from the Paris Agreement, the fisherman cleans the Nile, bottle by bottle. While the world’s politicians negotiate how to reach the climate goals from the Paris Agreement, the fisherman cleans the Nile, bottle by bottle. Photo: Nadine Elwasly – It gives me a good feeling while I’m fishing, that I’m keeping the Nile clean. – Isn’t it our country, our Nile? Our life depends on it. If I and the others don’t do our job, I won’t be able to throw the net into the water. It will be destroyed by all the rubbish, says Nasser and picks up a bottle with the rake.
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Egyptian activists must stay home from the climate summit – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
