Egyptian PM holds meeting to save Lake Manzala

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said work is actively underway to apply a national project to rescue pollution-infested Lake Manzala, located in eastern the Nile Delta.

Funding is being prepared to complete all the project's phases aimed to revive the lake and end all encroachments and pollution caused by sewage and industrial waste.

Following a meeting with a number of relevant ministers, Mahlab said it was the third to be held on Manzala Lake as it is located in four governorates (Dakahlia, Damietta, Port Said and Sharqiya) and is one of the most important sources of fish production in Egypt.

Pollution levels at the Lake have become extremely dangerous and threaten to turn it into a stagnant pond, the premier said.

The meeting was attended by the ministers of irrigation, agriculture, planning, housing and local development and the governors of Port Said, Damietta and Daqahlia.

The lake is plagued with environmental issues, encroachments, contamination and the outbreak of aquatic plants.

Violations at the lake over the past 30 years had shrunk its size from 750,000 feddans, one-tenth the size of the whole Nile Delta, to 125,000 feddans at present.