The size and rapid growth of Egypt's population have caused additional environmental problems. The expansion of urban areas into nearby farming areas infringes on the already limited agricultural land in the Nile Delta and Valley. Efforts to relieve this pressure by establishing satellite cities in the desert away from the Nile have been only partially successful because it is difficult to attract people and industries to these bleak environments. Dense urban areas such as Cairo, Alexandria, Al Minya, and Aswan have poor air quality, worsened by lax enforcement of measures to reduce emissions from industrial plants and motor vehicles. In these overcrowded cities, streets are filled with pollution-spewing cars and trucks, public transportation is poorly developed, and factories contaminate the air.
Tourism provides an important source of revenue for economic growth.
However, poorly controlled construction and waste disposal in new tourist centers along the eastern coast have seriously degraded the water quality of the Red Sea. In addition, large concentrations of tourists threaten the fragile desert areas and the marine corals along the coast. None of Egypt's environmental difficulties is impossible to solve. However, in an economy that is short on financial resources, it is often hard to find the political will and money to invest in long-term environmental protection. Douglas L. Johnson contributed the Land and Resources section of this article.