A fact-finding committee announced in a statement on Wednesday that the MOPCO-Agrium fertilizer plant in Damietta Governorate does not pose a risk to the environment, according to a report in the state-owned MENA news agency.
The committee had been formed by the Egyptian Syndicate of Scientific Professions to monitor possible environmental hazards emanating from the plant. The committee said that the manufacturing process takes place in a sealed environment that is 100 percent secure, according to MENA.
Osama Aboul Enein, under secretary general of the syndicate, said that all of the tests conducted by the committee on gases emitted from the plant indicated that they pose no risk to the environment.
In the statement, Aboul Enein said the committee concluded that the plant’s manufacturing processes took place within a closed circuit from the moment the gases entered the reactors to the time of their exit in the form of urea fertilizer and that there were no defects or leaks in the circuit.
He explained that industrial waste water resulting from manufacturing operations is water used for cooling the equipment during operations, and that part of this water comes out in the form of white smoke, which some people may mistake for a chemical contaminant to the environment, but that it is nothing more than high temperature water vapor.
Aboul Enein called on the residents of Damietta to support MOPCO. He appealed to residents to understand their country’s dire economic straits and avoid getting caught up in misleading rumors.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
