Pollution erodes fish stocks and livelihoods in Egyptian lake

Record ID: 1686940

  • Title: Pollution erodes fish stocks and livelihoods in Egyptian lake
  • Date: 1st September 2022
  • Summary: QARUN LAKE, FAYOUM, EGYPT (FILE - JUNE 29, 2022) (REUTERS) CHILDREN PULLING NETS ON A BOAT A BOAT ON QARUN LAKE COAST AT SUNSET
  • Embargoed: 15th September 2022 12:00
  • Keywords: EGYPT FAYOUM FISH LAKE POLLUTION
  • Location: FAYOUM AND GIZA, EGYPT
  • City: FAYOUM AND GIZA, EGYPT
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Climate Adaptation and Solution,Climate Change,Environment,General News,Middle East,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA003113328082022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Set between irrigated farmland and rocky desert southwest of Cairo, once pristine Qarun Lake used to teem with tilapia, bass and bream and shrimp, offering generous catches to fishermen from surrounding villages.
    But pollution from agricultural runoff and industrial and domestic waste has in recent years sullied its beauty and sent those stocks plunging, destroying an industry that had provided jobs for generations, fishermen say.
    "This lake used to be fine, but after the sewage drain was dumped in it, the fish seeds started to die, then no fish remained except for the very small fish like the sardine," said one fisherman, Ramadan Abdel Sattar Awad.
    Some former fishermen have adapted their small wooden boats to offer day trips for weekend visitors from Cairo, while others migrated to cities in eastern or southern Egypt.
    The 42km-long (26-mile) lake lies below sea level and was fed in the time of the pharaohs by Nile floods.
    Now it is replenished by drainage water and has become increasingly saline, with marine species introduced to replace freshwater fish.
    Egypt's scarce farmland along the Nile is farmed intensively, and agricultural run-off has damaged water quality in Qarun Lake, a problem documented in a 2017 government study that also noted increased salinity due to evaporation.
    A 2020 study published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research, an international journal, also showed higher-than-normal contamination with metals including copper, zinc, cadmium and lead.
    Magdy Allam, an environmental expert at Egypt's Climate Information Center, an official research group, said work was under way to purify local sewage water and cut Lake Qarun off from drainage from nearby farms.
    But its waters have deteriorated rapidly in part because it is an inland lake. "Closed lakes ... have a more fragile eco-system than other lakes that have open access to seas and oceans," he said.
    Some fishermen have tried relocating to Wadi El Rayan, a nearby oasis, but that was also found to be polluted in the 2020 study.
    (Production: Fatma Fahmy, Sherif Fahmy, Mariam Rizk)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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