Eutrophication Problem in Egypt

Abstract

The coastal area of Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea extends for about 1,200 km. It hosts a number of important residential and economic centres, like the cities of Alexandria, Port Said, Damietta, Rosetta, Matruh, and AL-Arish. The coastal strip between Alexandria and Matruh hosts tens of tourist villages, which are usually crowded by visitors during summer. Many activities are known in the coastal area, including fishing, industrial, tourism, trading and agricultural, oil and gas production, and transportation. There are five large ecologically different coastal lagoons connected to the sea coast, representing together about 25% of the total area of the Mediterranean wetland. These lagoons are considered as reservoirs for agricultural, industrial, and municipal wastes, which are discharged from surrounding cities and cultivated lands. The Egyptian Mediterranean coast receives huge volumes of wastewaters every year through the coastal lagoons and from other land-based effluents. These wastes are loaded by variable amounts and types of pollutants, in addition to great amount of nitrogenous and phosphorous compounds, which in turn cause high level of eutrophication along a significant part of the Mediterranean coast, particularly of both the Nile Delta region and Alexandria coast. Eutrophication is an importunate problem to the Egyptian Mediterranean coast, resulting in fundamental changes in the structure of the planktonic and benthic communities as well as fish mortality. Eutrophication was accompanied by the appearance of several harmful algal species at several hot spots along the coast. The level of eutrophication demonstrated wide variation along the Egyptian coast relative to the variations in the volume and contents of discharged wastes.