So I am back in Egypt for a short period of time and I thought it would be a good idea to have a post that draws form the experience of the Land of the Nile. The amount of air pollution reminded me of a classical example of policy failure. The Egyptian policy-making institutions are not exactly known for their ingenious policies, so let’s get down to the example…
When the rice farmers around Cairo burnt the rice husk that was left over after they picked their crops, they started a new phenomenon miles downwind, the Cairo black cloud. A massive black cloud that hovered over Cairo for days and days. In non-windy days things got even worse as the pollution accumulated. So in their normal fire fighting quick-fix way of doing things, they decided to go for a fine. Every farmer who burns rice husk on their land will pay LE 10,000. (approx. £1,000) A substantial amount in modern day Egypt.
Now the Egyptian farmer might not look it, but years of evolution has made him quite good at avoiding paying money. So how did the farmers get around the policy that took 5 minutes to come up with? They gathered all the rice husk, burnt it on one plot of land and shared the fine. A classic policy failure.
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