| المستخلص: |
Egypt already faces a variety of environmental problems that require immediate attention. In past efforts to achieve high rates of economic growth the environment has tended to be neglected. Now, Egypt's environmental problems can no longer be ignored. A host of issues relating to the economy, culture, society, education and politics have at one stage or another tended to enhance the level of environmental degradation in Egypt, or acted as buffer against it. Similarly, the approach of creating a centralist institution to deal with the environmental problems Egypt is currently facing has tended to have its impact on the reform process. However, nothing is more challenging to the environment and its degradation than Egypt's astronomical rates of population growth. As the number of human beings increases, the amount of natural resources with which to sustain this population, to improve the quality of human lives, and to eliminate mass poverty remains finite. Population growth has severe impact on Egyptian society. It compromises government abilities to provide education, health care, and food security for people, much less their abilities to raise their living standards. This gap between numbers and resources requires our immediate attention since population growth is concentrated in the low income countries, economically disadvantaged region and poor households. This paper reviews the severity of Egypt's population problem and its impact on resource use and the environment. It links resource use to subsidies, and subsidies to population growth and the development of the urban poor. It tries to show how all of these factors come together in a way that is hurting Egypt's development prospects, and analyzes ways in which the government can address some of these problems in the future.
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