Fish Disappear From Egypt's "Toilet Lakes"

by Cam McGrath

(IPS) -- Egypt has always been identified with the Nile River, which may explain why its sizeable northern lakes have been sorely neglected.

Four lakes covering more than 200,000 hectares rim the northern Nile Delta separated by a thin strip of land from the Mediterranean Sea. The lakes were among the richest and most diverse ecosystems in Egypt until just 30 years ago. Today, they are popularly referred to as "Egypt's toilet."

Lakes Manzala, Burullus, Edko and Mariout provided 35 percent of Egypt's fish catch during the 1970s. Their murky waters now account for just 17 percent of the catch, or about 133,000 tonnes. Unless something is done soon, the industry could collapse altogether.

"We're facing a disaster," says Ashraf El-Haddadi, a fisherman on Lake Manzala. "When I was a child we could catch enough fish in an hour, but now we spend all day only to catch a few tiny fish."

He blames pollution and improper resource management for the dwindling catch.

"The government only cares about industry and agriculture," he told IPS. "It has made fishing its last priority and left the lakes to die."

But fishing is hardly an insignificant industry. Net revenues from fish production amounted to $1.2 billion in 2002 -- about 10 percent of all agricultural revenues. Egypt imported an additional 154,000 tons of fish at a cost of $90 million.

"It's a crime that we have to import fish," said a fisheries official. He pointed out that Egypt exported three million dollars worth of fish to European markets in the late 1990s. The European Union banned Egyptian fish imports in 1999 due to concerns over the sanitary conditions of fish processing and packaging.

"The ban has been partially lifted, but there is still concern about pollution," said the official. "Some people say the fish are unfit for human consumption."

Pollution is the most visible threat to the northern lakes. The bulk of Egypt's waterborne pollutants are carried down the Nile and into the lakes, which are located at the terminal end of the country's drainage network. Pesticides, fertilizers, heavy metals and excrement settle and accumulate in the still water.

"The water contains many toxins and diseases," Osman Rayis, a chemistry professor at Alexandria University told IPS. "They are absorbed by the fish, and by people who eat the fish."

Many fishermen suffer from worm infestations, skin irritations, bilharzia and viral hepatitis. On Lake Edko, studies have shown that up to 40 percent of fishermen and their families in some areas experience kidney failure.

The most polluted lake is Mariout. The shallow basin serves as a holding pond for sewage and industrial effluents from the adjacent Mediterranean port of Alexandria. Recent cleanup efforts have helped reduce the volume of pollutants, but the lake's foul smell and reddish hue attest to years of neglect.

"The pollution creates an excess of decaying organic matter, which is the real enemy," explained Rayis. "The organic matter uses up all the available oxygen so the fish cannot live."

Oxygen is not the only thing being depleted. The surface area of the lakes is diminishing as the shoreline is filled to make land for industry and agriculture.

Lake Manzala, for instance, has lost nearly 70 percent of its surface area to farmland in the last 50 years. Industrialized Lake Mariout is just a quarter of its former size. If current trends continue, the lake could cease to exist by 2015.

"The main problem is land filling, which is increasing the concentration of pollutants," said Ahmed Abdel Rehim, senior program specialist at the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE). "Pollutants can be solved, but if you fill the lake and put urban dwellings on it, this is irreversible."

He told IPS that efforts to halt the destruction of valuable wetlands had failed due to the lack of a coherent conservation policy. "Each lake is under several authorities, which means too many stakeholders," he said. "Anyone can do whatever he wants."