Suez Canal University

Engineering faculty

NGEP

Manzala Lake

1-

Geographic view
Manzala Lake is located in the northeast corner of the Nile Delta, and it
is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Suez Canal to
the east, overlooking the five provinces, Sharkia and Dakahlia, Damietta,
Port Said, Ismailia.
 And by reviewing the modern geological maps that showed us that the
maps vary in the form of the modern lake completely from those we know
in our maps of school, I have noticed that the size of the lake shrinks, it has
become like a wide channel.

The birth of Manzala Lake

Lake was initially revealed in the order is a complex set of bays hurt by a
branch of the Nile, and were separated by a range of hills from the
Mediterranean Sea, but due to the conditions and geological and
environmental factors (such as earthquakes) they were removed barriers
to prevail upon the sea, resulting in coverage areas low water, which led to
the spill-over after that.

Returning to the maps already in water depths of modern digital maps,

we found that there are areas of great depth almost given in the form of
channels, perhaps the bays, The shallow areas are areas that were not
covered by water, but the newly flooded (This is known as deep sewer
positioned boat owners and boats and fishermen and they call it the name
of the Channel).

Manzala Lake Problems

1) Drying:
 The policy of drying has led to minimizing the area of the lake to less
than 25% of the original area .drying is one of the most influential and
destructive policies of the fishery wealth that affect the topography of the lake
whose collapse has damaged so seriously the national economy because of the
increase of the great losses in fish productivity and to bridge the food gap that
cannot be filled by importing from abroad in addition to damages as a result of
social disruption of a large segment of fishermen because of the limited area and
the weak fish stocks
After it was an area of 750 thousand acres in 1885 ,it has become an area of
230 thousand acres in 2000 and 120 thousand acres only currently according to
the estimates done by the organization of fisheries wealth development because
of the drying process, after the lake was a fertile environment for the tens of
species of fish from the Nile, naval and refuge to hundreds of thousands of
migratory birds has become a center of expulsion of this wealth that helped
more than 150,000 fishermen with their large families .
The experts, officials and fishermen said that the drying process has been
done for urban expansion, roads and canals, mainly because of the organization
of urban development . Tens of thousands of acres have been dried for
agricultural expansion, on the expense of the higher interests of the lake and
fishes at the rate of 30 thousand acres in Dakahlia and 87 thousand acres in
Sharkia for the project Sahl El-Husseinieh and 78 thousand acres in Port Said
for the purposes of roads and expansions and 4500 acres in Damietta.
 Drying process is carried out for the following
purposes :

1- Drying for Agriculture:

Drying has led Ismailia Governorate to be not participating in Manzala
Lake anymore and also other areas like the area of “Umm El-Reish” , “San El-
hagar” , “Bahr Elbaqar” and “ Husseiniya”, which was famous during the
seventh and eighth decade of last century with its most popular fish farms,
which had been converted into agricultural land .
The eastern region of the lake has been also dried from the south of Port
Said, to Kantara which was known as Nasser project, 25 thousand acres of fish
farms was converted into agricultural use.
And in Damietta in “Abu Greda” more than 6 thousand acres has been
dried.

2- Drying for urban expansion to meet the need of some provinces especially
Port Said

3- Drying for construction of new roads such Port Said- Damietta highway as an
alternative to the coastal road, which led to divide the lake, which resulted in the
circular road triangle at the east of “El-Gamil” strait, which divided the area into
three sections there.

4- Drought due to lack of water flow into the lake.

Whether from the Nile or through the “ Alaqi” and “El-Anania” small
canals branched from Damietta branch.
As the drainage water has been reduced into the lake, especially after the
establishment of Al-Salam Canal ,which led to the collection of some drainage
water which was delivered to the lake.
Or due to closing straits especially” Alkaboty” at port said and “Sheikh
Ali “on the northern coast of Damietta, which led to a decrease in salinity of the
lake, which helped the growth of grass and aquatic plants

5- Port Said Circular Road

Which was established especially to facilitate the traffic outside the city
of Port Said, which begins at 4.5 kilometer southern Port Said which passes the
channel linking the city of Port Said with Matareyah. This road has led to
removing 20 thousand acres which was as a shelter for the small fishes because
this area was beside the sea.

6- Elsalam Canal
The establishment of Al-Salam Canal, south of Lake, has resulted in other
cuts of 50 thousand acres south of Port Said in addition to 62 thousand acres
north of Husseiniya.

7- continuous change in the lake shores

Which had a clear effect on the topography of the lake and consequently
in the shape of its path and beaches, which resulted in a clear impact on water
circulation that is vital to the continuity of life in the lake, especially in areas
that had become semi-isolated in the western region and is currently in the
Eastern Region .Running water helps to mix the lake water with Sea .

8- Isolating areas of the lake:

The extension of aquatic plants helped to separate some areas of the lake,
especially in the western and south-east of the lake, which reduces the
opportunities for exchange of water between the parts of the lake areas and
create new environments for fish repellent.

 The dimensions of this problem returns to :

1. Decreasing actual area from Manzala Lake.

 2. Low productivity due to low area.

3. Increase in unemployment due to the lower area and fish stocks

4. Impact on water circulation within the lake and its natural circulation.

2) Pollution
Among the four lakes "Mariot - Edco - Burullus - Manzala" crumbling since the
seventies until today Manzala Lake - the largest Egyptian lakes at all – is being killed
moment by moment and day by day, as if the bad of that is located between the five
provinces "Port Said - Ismailia - Sharkia - Dakahlia -- Damietta "Instead of those
provinces that are sponsored and interest on the grounds that it was the largest lakes of
fish production with an average annual output of 60 thousand tons, with 35% of the
lakes and the North which is estimated at 172 thousand tons annually, with those
provinces, as well as concerned ministries , they are vanishing it slowly . Acts of soil
reclamation are in full swing, and drying them cut large areas of it with willful and
premeditated, and to realize the size of the disaster, which exposed lake we show some
figures and information :
Sewage , agricultural and industrial untreated wastes are directly and indirectly
dumped into the lake, with an agricultural drainage 6,6 billion cubic meters
annually, and sewage 226.6 million cubic meters annually, and industrial
wastewater 4,2 million cubic meters annually.

Manzala Lake has been subjected to many

sources of pollution that are limited to:
A - pollution from untreated sewage:

- Bahr Elbaqar Bank is the most dangerous of these sources with a length of
190 km ,extends from south of Cairo, passing by the provinces of Sharqia,
Qaliubiya, Ismailia and Dakahlia that is connected to Manzala lake . The estimated
quantities of untreated sewage delivered by the bank is about 1.5 million cubic
meters per day (of which about 1.25 million cubic meters from Cairo alone)
 - Pollution from sewage resulting from the wastes of local society houses,
which dump waste on both sides of the Bank of bahr El-baqar, or the shores of the
lake, or which dumped by the sewage networks directly from the towns and
villages bordering the lake like “mohep”, “Alsiala” drainage in Damietta.

B - water pollution from untreated industrial wastewater:

The danger of that water is what it carries from the heavy metals like lead,
arsenic, iron, cadmium, etc. which are untreated and their main sources are
factories who dump them in the waters of the Bahr Elbaqar or its bank or the
sewage networks in cities and villages, which dump waste in the lake directly as
well as wastes of the southern industrial zone Port Said and oil and gas companies
north of the lake and heavy metals are concentrated in the tissues of fish living in
the lake causing the long-term future health risks to humans .

C - pollution caused by agricultural drainage filled with pesticides:

Its drainages sources are (Serrw - Hados - Ramses – Bahr Elbaqar). The
estimated amount of water discharged by these drainages in the lake about 6
million cubic meters / day .

 The dimension of this problems :

1- Influence the presence of fish in the lake which cause death in the case of
severe pollution .
2- Influence on the growth of fish and its weaknesses and thus low productivity.
3- Health impact on humans and the consequent diseases
4- Spread of reeds and increasing the plantings at the expense of the Lake due to
excessive growth .
5- Influence the specifications of water and components .

Security problems within the lake:

1 - the crime of hunting and smuggling of small fish:

Article (19) of Law No. 124 of 1983 : It is not allowed to collect or transfer the
small fish from the sea, lakes or other water bodies without permission from the
General Authority for Fish Resources Development.

Article (55) of the Law : Anyone who doesn’t obey the Article (19) will be
punished by spending a duration not less than three months and not more than six
months in prison and a fine of not less than one hundred pounds and not more than
five hundred pounds or one of them and in case of repeating , the penalty is
doubled and confiscate fishing gear and fish cost for the General Authority for
Fish Resources Development.

 The dimensions of this problem:

1- This illegal trade achieve huge profits against the penalty for them as the price
of one thousand of unit small fish of “Buri” (filled with tea refinery) are sold for
400 pounds.

- Most professionals of this job of Mataria hunters or criminals have changed

the previous criminal activity, whether or theft to drug trafficking ,into smuggling
of fish, using high-speed yachts or at the Mediterranean coast using cars equipped
with pick-up tools .

- These groups (for yachts - cars) always be armed with guns and white
weapons or sticks or stones, and in all conditions of the catching them there is a
resistance .

2 - Criminal centers within the lake:

Inside the lake where there is more than forty islands and many houses
distributed on the banks of the lake was formed by mostly criminal refuges
because of the difficulty of the ground in these areas and difficulty of access and
easy escape when the authorities reach it, however the many campaigns made by
authority in conjunction with the Ministry of Interior to hit spots that criminal and
fugitives from the provisions and unauthorized weapons, but these places still a
shelter for many criminals to public safety .

3- Illegal methods of fishing in the lake

The illegal fishing or illegal use of pesticides, or electric shock or the use of gas,
which ultimately leads to destruction of the environment. Pesticides fishing not
only impact on fishes but also the rights of the rest of the organisms of animals and
birds . There are also ways of fishing that require huge quantities of aquatic plants
of different areas of the lake, which resulted that the lake is now semi-covered
with plants which prevent the movement of water, fishing and navigation.

4 - The presence of large numbers of yachts with high speed motors which coast
guards can’t catch them and they are forbidden within the lake according to the
law, whether for a picnic or transportation .
 And the vast majority of these boats without a license, some of which have
licenses for river transport in the governorates, but the actual activity is fishing in
the lake

The Coast guards facilities are not compatible with these yachts, which is
growing from year to year .

The absence of controls on companies that sell these motors has led to the
spread among the fishermen .

5 - There are numbers of primitive transport river boats that has no security and
safety procedures are working in the transport of passengers and animals, between
Port Said and Mataria, although the authorities take legal action on them but they
soon return to work again

3) The problems of water birds

Manzala Lake is considered as one of winter places that is important for
migratory birds for about 34 type besides the sea crow which consumes 4000 tons
of fish annually which is considered the first destructive bird to the lakes . There
are areas within the lake is a safe haven for these birds, and most important of
these species are sea crow, gull , Alblachon ,baga’a and other which start their
migration to Egypt at the end of November ,the beginning of the season of small
fishes .and as the fear of birds flow the hunters are no more haunting them.

 Actions that have been applied to save Manzala

Lake :
1- A Project was created for biological treatment of Manzala Lake wastewater
which is contaminated by “Bahr elbakar” drainage, as well as a project to
develop El-kaboty.
2- A campaign has been expanded recently in cooperation with coast guards
which has resulted in:
a. removing 3000 acres of the total 20 thousand acres abuses.
b. removing 257 illegal wooden booth on the lake shore.
c. Taking the legal action against the liquid wastes.
 Actions that is required to save Manzala Lake :
1 - stop the policy of drying the lake completely.
2 – taking compulsory actions against industrial facilities wastes and
force them to treat these wastes in accordance with environmental
standards before disposal at banks of the lake.
3 - create a combined treatment plants for industrial wastewater in each
region.
4 - raise the efficiency of treatment plants for sewage dumped on the
lake.
5 – continuous cleaning of straits.
6 - Establishment of a breakwater on the western side of El-Gamil strait.
7 - Providing extractor of Fisheries Wealth Development Authority to
clear the straits periodically.
8 - Work on the safe disposal of the output of the clean-out of the lake.
9 - to impose security control of the outlaws lake and a strict application
of the laws of the fishing.
10 – Saving biological diversity by preventing and criminalizing fishing
the small fishes in front of straits.
11 - Following the best way to clean the bottom of the lake to remove the

contaminated sediments that had accumulated over the years of

materials that exist in the environment for long periods (heavy
metals, pesticides, organic compounds).