Northern lakes in Egypt

“Burullus lake”

Eng. Noha Samy

Manager of lakes department

EEAA

The Egyptian Northern Lakes

• They have always been major areas of fish production in Egypt, since more

than 75% of the Egyptian Lakes production are harvesting from them.

• The Nile Delta covers 60% of agriculture activities in Egypt, and 17% of

the Egyptian income.

• They are internationally important sites for wintering water birds providing

valuable habitats for several hundred thousand of birds.

Sources of fishery production

Lake Burullus

Location of Burullus Lake:

• Second largest lakeof the Nile delta coastal lakes

•The lake located on the eastern side of Rosetta branch of theNile River

• The lake lies within five districts ofKafr El Sheikh governorate:Baltim, El-Hamoul, El-Riad, Sidi Salemand Metobes.

General Characteristics – Shallowlake (40 cm- 200 cm)

– Shoreline about 65 kmand width vary from5 km on the westthen increases in the middle to reach an average of 11 km.

– Connected with Nile thoughBarimbal canal(1926) & with seathroughBougaz El Burullus.

– Plants covers 45% fromthe lake & 30 inner islands.

– Classified into three sectors: East, Middle and West

– Kafr el sheikh governorates produce21,8 % of Egyptianfisheries, 87 % fromthe lake and the rest fromfish farms.

BURULLUS SERVICES

Sand Dunes

Fisheries

(32 species)

Agriculture

Vegetation s

Salt Marshes

Reeds production

Provisioning Services

Touristic and Recreation Activities

Mosques Seedy Ibrahim

el-DesookyEl Burullus Harbor

1869

El Faraeen hill

DesookHouse Of Saad Zagloul

Palace of king Foaud

1934

The Virgin Mary Church

Environmental Challenges

Drying and

Erosion of the

lake areas

Deterioration

of water

quality

Unsustainable

fishing

Climate

change & SLR

Drying Large Area of the Lake• During last two centuries the lake area has decreased by up to 62.5%

from its original area where it was (1092) km2 in 1801 and decreased to (410) km2.

1973 1978 1983

1987 2000 2003

Reed plants represent one of important nature habitat in lake but itsarea reached to 40% of the total area and this increase leads to reducethe actual area of the lake used for various activities within the lake.

Increase the Amount of Reeds

Agricultural discharge

98%

Untreated waste water

1.65%

Treated waste water

0.1%

Water Quality Deterioration

(Eutrophication)

Agricultural waste

3.71 Millar m³/ year

98 %

Sewage wastes

36.3 million m³/ year

1.75%

Industrial wastes

4.46 million m³/ year

0.25 %

Industrial discharge

0.25%

Agricultural drainage discharging in the

Burullus Lake

•the southern side of the lake receive the drainage water from six agricultural drains (Drain 11; Drain 9; Drain 8; Drain 7; Nasser Drain; and El-Gharbia Drain)

Climate change & SLR

Burullus stakeholders

1-Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate

2- Ministry of State for the Environment

3-Ministry of Agriculture and land reclamation (national authority of fishery development)

4-Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources

5-Ministry of Housing and New Communities

6-Ministry of Health

7-Ministry of Defense (Coast Guard)

8-Ministry of Interior

9- no. of NGOs

Institutional & financing Challenges

Multi-

stake

holders

Conflict

between

stake

holders

Conflict

between

regulating

laws

Financing

tools

Absence

of water

quality

standard

security

Institutional practices

• A national regular program for monitoring ofwater quality of the Egyptian coasts and lakesfor the four seasonal field campaigns(summer, autumn, winter and spring) initiatedin July 2009

• the program is a collaborative between theEgyptian Environmental Affair Agency (EEAA)and National Institute of Oceanography andFisheries (NIOF).

• Regular dridging of the sea inlet (bougaz) andlake sediments to enhance the flow of seawater and enhance the fish production of thelake.

• Restrictions have been done by EEAA with thecooperation of authority of fisherydevelopment for banning illegal harvesting offish fry from the sea inlet to increase fishproduction of the lake and consequentlyincrease the fishermen income besidespreventing the fishing in the three months ofbreeding.

• A national protocol between ministry ofenvironment and ministry of housing forsewage services to kafr el sheikh governmentfunded by horizon 2020.

• Industrial inspection department in EEAA areresponsible for inspection for industriesdischarging in the lakes and giving thetechnical advice with a suitable duration forthe industries to enhance their treatmentsystems to be within the standard of theenvironmental law 4/1994 modified by law9/2009, in addition to EPAP III project.

National protocol of “Rehabilitation of the northern lakes of Egypt” signed by the prime

minister in march 2012,

Between:

1. ministry of EEAA,

2. ministry of water resources and irrigation,

3. ministry of agriculture,

4. ministry of technical researches

Protocol Main objectives:

• Rehabilitation of the northern lakes and preparing coastalintegrating management plan for each lake, in order tosustainable development of its resources.

• Environmental and socio - economical management of thenorthern lakes of Egypt.

• Minimize the government expenses by integrating activitiesbetween stakeholders and decrease repetitions.

• Enhance the cooperation between the serving andtechnical ministries and relevant authorities.

• Strengthen best practices and experiences to raise thecitizens income and livelihood.

Declarations by the protocol

Three declarations have been prepared to be signed

by the prime minister:

� declaration for formation of ministerial

committee for rehabilitation of the northern lakes.

� Declaration for formation of consulting committee

to implement the activities of rehabilitation of the

northern lakes.

� Declaration of formation of high committee for

licenses of activities around the northern lakes

Protocol main activities

– Revisioning the institutional framework and legislation

– Forming data base on the lakes environmental status for each

lake and its main sources of pollution

– Regular monitoring to the lake water quality (env. Status –

pollution hotspots – pollution types -..)

– Preparing integrated coastal plan for the northern lakes.

– Preparing action plan for treating the land base sources

including drainages.

– Studying the climate change conditions for each lake

– doc~$ل تنفیذ بروتوكل البحیرات3.

Thanks