Pollution, climate change devastating Egypt’s fisheries, says new investigation

3 years ago

This picture taken on October 24, 2019 shows a view of a floating fish farm by the town of Borg Megheizel, lying on the Rosetta branch of the Nile river delta in Egypt's northern Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate, some 55 kilometres northeast of Alexandria [KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images]

Pollution and climate change are devastating Egyptian fisheries, according to a two-part investigative series published by Climate Tracker.

Fish are harder to find in the Shata and Al-Qabouti regions near Lake Manzala in northeast Egypt, says the environmental non-profit, which has carried out water, soil and fish analysis which shows the fish were unfit for human consumption.

Locals have dumped their waste into the lake and factories have dumped toxic chemicals there whilst fishermen have arrived at work to find fish dead in the water, swollen and floating on the surface.

According to Climate Tracker, authorities have not effectively enforced regulations to prevent waste being dumped in the water and have neglected building sewage stations.

In the village of Port Said, also in the northeast of Egypt, half of the residents have left because it is covered in rubbish dumped by factories.

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Pollution from chemical factories, along with climate change which has raised the temperature, have devastated the local fishing industry and put people in financial hardship, forcing them to take out loans.

In the village of Al-Qabouti, fishermen have been hospitalised due to the pollution and waste in the lake.

According to the World Bank’s Climate Change Knowledge Portal, Egypt suffers from water stress, a 22 per cent decrease in precipitation, a 1 degree increase in temperature and more frequent and severe droughts and flash flooding.

The northern city of Alexandria is expected to disappear as sea levels rise if climate issues are not addressed.

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority has said that in the summer of 2021 there was a 3-4 degree rise in the temperature compared to five years ago.

A view of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a massive hydropower plant on the River Nile that neighbors Sudan and Egypt, as the dam started to produce electricity generation in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia on February 19, 2022 [Minasse Wondimu Hailu – Anadolu Agency]

Temperature increases have also had a devastating impact on agricultural production with a 50 per cent drop in crops in 2020. They area also expected to affect Egypt’s vital tourism industry and its water resources, already threatened by a dispute over the Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam.

Egypt is due to host the November 2022 global climate summit, with rights groups slamming the decision, saying Cairo will use the event to whitewash its record of human rights abuses.

There are roughly 65,000 political prisoners in Egyptian jails including environmental activist Ahmed Amasha, who has been detained and tortured since July 2020.