“It is mainly for environmental, economic and social reasons,” Khaled Qassem, a spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Local Development, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Besides the environmental benefits, the change would allow families to spend more time together in the evenings and potentially reduce crime, backers said.
Qassem said that the ministry, having tried out the evening shutdown during a partial coronavirus lockdown, now hoped to shorten working hours for shops, cafes, restaurants and malls in the post-coronavirus period…
A night curfew imposed as part of precautionary measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus led to a 36% air quality improvement in Greater Cairo, with even bigger gains in coastal cities and the Nile Delta, according to data from the Egyptian Ministry of Environment.
