Cadastral map of the Wadi El Qamar area drafted in 2018.

Children from Wadi El Qamar playing football on the main road.

The Fifth Oven, a cement factory, was constructed next to the northern part of the residential area. The factory and the housing are only 10 meters apart, and the northwestern wind in this coastal area carries dust, coal, and garbage into homes.

One of the blocks in the residential area.

A man wipes his eye - most people cover themselves because dust and cement are everywhere in the air.

Left: Children play football in Wadi El Qamar. Right: Yousef is one of the kids who has asthma, he always stays at home because he cannot go out and play like the other kids.

Mostafa playing with his 5-year-old daughter Noor.

Kadry with his daughter Shahd.

Mostafa is 55 years old, a father of 3 daughters and 1 son. He, his wife, and his children have asthma. Their health conditions deteriorated after their exposure to coal and garbage from the factory.

Amal is 11 years old. She came to this area when she was 3, and just a few months after, she got asthma. She has to use a breathing mask every day.

Left: Omar works in the factory wearing a football t-shirt bearing the company name. Right: Awady was born with asthma, he wishes to be a great football player one day and he fears for his health.

Abdelrhman, 33: "My chest allergy started taking a toll on me to the point that I had to go to the hospital. I spent it all for my treatment until there was no money left and had to borrow money from others."

The vibrations from the Fifth Oven crack the walls in the houses that surround the factory, so Ola puts a new sticker and new tape for each new crack.

Ola said: "The roof came down, and we almost died. Now I have to go buy a package of the very cement that they are killing us with, in order to repair the damage they caused in the first place."

If they leave the windows open for 10 minutes, 1 centimeter thick dust and coal forms.

"We got used to the sound of machinery in our ears. We hear it anywhere we go. The noise pollution, along with the very high temperatures of the factory that range between 1200-1500 degrees Celsius. If the temperature on an average summer day is 35 degrees, it reaches us here as 55 degrees."

Left: This is a receipt of an installment payment for the plot of land in 1927, proving that this land belongs to Abdel Kader. Right: This is a document dating back to the King Farouk era, the 10th ruler of Egypt, proving that this house belongs to Mostafa.

Ahmed, 11 years old: "I always take the role of goalkeeper in football matches because I am unable to exert more effort. I am learning how to play the flute because this is the only thing that doesn't require much movement. I do not love what I am doing, but I want to live like my friends at school."

Shahd playing in her room.

Omar is 26 years old. In the image on the left, he photoshopped his face on the body of a famous actor, and wrote "The super star of generation Omar."

Abdelrhman waiting for his turn to see the doctor.

Abdelrhman getting ready to have the water in his lung removed.

A portrait of Abdelrhman in his room.

Left: Abdelrhman is sleeping in the mosque, just as he did four years ago at the onset of his medical problems. Right: It is noticeable that even the animals in the residential area are also affected by the coal and dust.

Haja Fatma is one of the eldest residents of this area, and her house directly faces the factory. She is 70 years old and was born in this house. She waits long hours by the telephone waiting for her grandchildren or siblings to call.

Omar leaving his aunt's house says, "She is my mother, father, and everything that is beautiful. I live with her, she is the one that checks on me and cooks for me."