Egypt seizes 1,000 bottles of illegal pesticides found on ship from Saudi Arabia

A shipment of banned pesticides coming from Saudi Arabia was confiscated at Egypt's Safaga Maritime Port on Wednesday.

Local media reports claimed that 1,000 bottles of the illegal pesticides were packaged inside paint containers aboard the ship. Customs officers at the port reportedly confiscated the shipment, filed a report and notified the prosecution for further investigations.

According to the World Health Organization's International Program on Chemical Safety, some pesticides can be highly hazardous, and may cause acute or chronic toxic effects that pose a particular risk to children.  

"Environmental contamination can also result in human exposure through consumption of residues of pesticides in food and, possibly, drinking water,” the report warned.

Speaking at a conference on May 11, Environment Minister Khaled Fahmy had said that he was reopening investigations into the ongoing problem of expired pesticides held at Egypt’s seaports. Currently, two warehouses are holding around 1,000 tons of expired pesticides that need to be disposed of, according to the minister.

“Fake companies bring the waste in from other countries, get rid of the waste and then disappear,” Fahmy claimed. He went on to explain that the ministry was looking into solutions to handling the waste, which must be incinerated, as it can take some 30 years to biodegrade.

Egypt has made a deal with the World Bank to launch an international tender to eliminate this waste, meaning that foreign companies can bid on the disposal job. The ministry wants the pesticides to be burned in cement factories outside of Egypt, probably in Europe.

“Public opinion is sensitive, even if it was technologically possible in Egypt," Fahmy explained. “We have a problem of handling hazardous waste. Other ministries of environment around the world are allowed to incinerate hazardous waste in cement furnaces.”

Pesticides are a leading cause of cancer among children in Egypt, Fahmy said in a February speech marking the International Day for Children with Cancer. The minister stressed the importance of raising awareness of how to use pesticides and fertilizers in agricultural communities.