During the first half of August, fishermen and local residents reported fish deaths and dwindling catches in Lake Manzala. About 20 days later, the effects reached fish farms overlooking the lake. On August 25, mass fish deaths occurred after lake water entered farm ponds in Shata, on the border between Damietta and Port Said, including Ahmed Hani’s farm.
Initially, the water appeared normal, with no obvious change in colour or smell. Its effect on the fish, however, was unlike anything farmers had seen in previous years. Fish had previously shown gradual signs of deteriorating water quality, such as a small number dying and some rising to the surface. This time, they died suddenly in the water and at the bottom of the ponds.
The losses soon affected most farms in the area. Ahmed Hani estimates his own losses at around EGP 3 million, after sea bream and meagre in one pond were almost entirely wiped out and two shrimp ponds suffered varying degrees of damage. He says a neighbouring farmer lost around EGP 15 million following the deaths of approximately 17–18 tonnes of fish; the equipment used to operate that farm had cost around EGP 1.2 million.
“Farms here produce several species, including sea bream, sea bass, mullet, meagre and shrimp, but sea bream suffered the greatest damage,” he tells Zawia3. “Last season, our shrimp production was good, unlike this season, which has brought widespread losses. Farm owners still have to pay land rents, which have reached around EGP 11,000 per feddan annually, as well as fuel, feed, equipment and maintenance costs.”
Dead fish are not the only source of losses. Farmers face additional expenses trying to save the remaining fish, particularly the cost of operating aeration equipment. Under normal conditions, Ahmed’s farm required fuel costing around EGP 150,000 a month. That cost doubled as equipment ran continuously in an effort to keep the surviving fish alive.
Despite intensive aeration, fish continued to die at Ahmed’s farm, raising questions about the oxygen-shortage hypothesis. In mid-September, he noticed that water coming from Lake Manzala suddenly turned white. According to his account, it stayed that way until September 16, before strong winds and water currents on September 17 and 18 stirred the water and restored its normal colour.
“The water did not necessarily have a strong smell or clear signs of pollution, but it affected the fish as soon as it entered the ponds. We are waiting for the authorities to intervene, examine the water and publish the test results so we can understand the losses across such a large area,” he says.
Facing catastrophic losses, most farmers collected whatever fish they could shortly after they died and sold them cheaply for use in salted-fish production. They disposed of fish that remained on the pond floor and floated up later after decomposing. Ahmed explains that farms had sometimes seen dozens or hundreds of fish die during July, August and September, but recently entire ponds were wiped out within hours.
In the first week of September, Magdy El-Sayed was shocked to see the sea bream and sea bass he had been raising for two years rise from the pond floor to the surface. His fish farm overlooks Lake Manzala in the Diba Triangle, west of Port Said and Damietta. Believing a lack of oxygen was responsible, he pumped fresh water from the lake into the pond.
His attempt to save the fish failed. They had already died and settled on the pond floor before beginning to float to the surface that evening. With his son’s help, he quickly collected the dead fish and placed them on the embankment, fearing that leaving them in the pond would further degrade the water.
The losses soon spread to other ponds, killing large shrimp and grey mullet and thinlip mullet. When Magdy’s daughter entered the water with him to help collect the dead fish, the areas of her skin that touched it developed swelling and a painful reaction. Her father took her to Ezbet El-Borg Hospital, where she received intravenous fluids and injections. Doctors told the family that a type of bacteria resulting from water pollution had caused her condition.
For more than a week, tonnes of fish continued to die at his farm and neighbouring farms in the Diba Triangle and the northern parts of the lake, without a convincing explanation from the authorities. He says he reported the incident to the Future of Egypt agency, which has been responsible for managing and operating Lake Manzala since late 2024 and leases these fish farms. The response, he says, was that he must dispose of the dead fish to avoid being cited for an environmental violation.
“The fish deaths caused me financial losses exceeding EGP 300,000,” he tells Zawia3. “I had to borrow money and look for other income to cover my daughter’s upcoming wedding and the farm’s financial commitments, including around EGP 35,000 for the half-yearly rent instalment on the ten feddans I lease.”
He explains that the losses extend beyond the value of the dead fish to the costs of rearing them, feed, fuel and rent. Rent rose from approximately EGP 2,000 to around EGP 6,000 per feddan, alongside additional sums he says include EGP 500 per feddan for the Tahya Misr fund and another contribution for assistance. According to his account, this brings his total payments to around EGP 7,000 per feddan.
Some grey mullet, thinlip mullet and shrimp fortunately survived at Magdy’s farm. He is trying to save them by running pumps throughout the day to raise oxygen levels in the water. Operating two machines costs him up to EGP 800 a day in fuel, in addition to feed, which costs around EGP 28,000 per tonne.
Affected farmers, including Magdy, recall deteriorating water quality and green patches that they suspect were algae consuming oxygen and potentially suffocating the fish. Yet, in their view, running the oxygen pumps at full capacity casts doubt on that explanation. They suspect their fish died after being exposed to waste from a petrochemical plant or freshwater entering the lake carrying pollutants or harmful bacteria.
Lake Manzala lies in the northeastern Nile Delta. It covers around 404.69 square kilometres, with an average depth of 1.15 metres, and extends across Port Said, Dakahlia and Damietta governorates. It borders the Suez Canal to the east, the Damietta branch of the Nile to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north.
The lake receives water from several principal sources, including the old and new El-Gamil inlets and the Diba inlet, known locally as El-Saffara, as well as the El-Ratma and El-Saffara channels. Its inflows are mixed: some saline water comes from the Damietta branch, alongside freshwater and brackish water.
Drainage water is among the lake’s main inflows, notably from four drains: Bahr El-Baqar, the principal source of sewage pollution; El-Serw, an agricultural drain in Damietta; Hadous, which separates Sharqia and Dakahlia; and Ramses, in Dakahlia.
Unprecedented Fish Mortality
In recent years, the state has expanded the leasing of parts of Lake Manzala for fish farming. These include around 4,000 feddans in El-Gamil, around 2,600 in Qa’r Bahr south of Port Said, around 1,800 in El-Khandaq, and further areas in El-Agiba. According to El-Sayed Aslan, a Port Said fisherman, this has reduced the space available for open fishing.
Fishermen are accustomed to limited fish deaths in August and September each year, caused by high temperatures, falling water levels, weak water circulation and some pollution. This season, however, mortality has increased sharply. Fishermen, including El-Sayed, believe continued inflows from the Bahr El-Baqar and “Selinmar” drains have increased pollutant concentrations and degraded the aquatic environment.
“The lake’s water has recently been changing colour,” he tells Zawia3. “It turns white when oxygen levels fall or pollution increases. If this continues for longer, the water turns red, which fishermen regard as a sign of severe deterioration and fish deaths.”
He stresses that fish deaths linked to deteriorating water quality are not entirely new in Lake Manzala, but that this season’s scale is far greater than in previous years. He estimates the usual annual damage at around 10%, rising this year, in his assessment, to approximately 70–80%.
He says fish that die in farms may be sold cheaply to salted-fish factories or traders rather than at the usual price for live fish. Live sea bream, for example, sells for around EGP 300 per kilogram, while recently dead fish may fetch much less for preparation and salting. In some cases, he estimates the price at around EGP 50 per kilogram.
In media statements in August last year, Dr Salah Moselhi, head of the Lakes and Fish Resources Protection and Development Agency, linked fish deaths to high temperatures and a lack of oxygen. He advised farmers to lower stocking densities and reduce feed during hot periods, and announced veterinary outreach visits to monitor fish and address health problems related to heat stress.
According to Marwan Mohamed, who owns a fish farm overlooking the lake, influential agricultural landowners closed the El-Ananiya channel or drain, an important waterway linking the Nile’s Damietta branch to Lake Manzala, using pipes and gates. He says this prevented freshwater coming from the El-Salam Canal from reaching the lake and nearby farms, degrading water quality and sharply increasing salinity.
Marwan leases a 16-feddan fish farm with seven or eight ponds. In recent weeks, fish in around half the ponds died. One pond lost all its sea bream, meagre and mullet, valued at around EGP 800,000, he tells Zawia3. He says the usual annual fish deaths cannot be compared with what happened this year.
Marwan says the authorities have taken insufficient action to establish the causes, analyse the water or respond on a scale matching farmers’ losses. He was part of a delegation that took dead fish to the fisheries authority, but, according to his account, they faced procedures and official reports against them instead of support or an explanation.
“Rent per feddan rose from around EGP 3,000 to EGP 13,000 this year,” he adds. “Farmers who cannot pay because their fish died risk losing their land. Even fishing in Lake Manzala has become harder. Some fishermen’s boats have been confiscated, and permits for boat and small-vessel engines cost around EGP 25,000.”
Lake Manzala’s annual fish production is estimated at around 50,000 tonnes, accounting for approximately 48% of production from Egypt’s natural lakes. It is also an important habitat for migratory birds and supports species including tilapia, mullet, Nile catfish, grass carp, shrimp and crabs.
For years, however, the lake has suffered shrinking area due to erosion, dredging and land drying, as well as pollution from wastewater and domestic, industrial and agricultural effluent. Aquatic plants such as water hyacinth and reeds also obstruct water circulation, adversely affecting fish resources.
Development and Changes to the Lake’s Environment
This year, fish mortality at farms in Damietta and the Diba Triangle has risen sharply compared with the usual levels for the same period. High temperatures and low dissolved oxygen harm fish, particularly when oxygen-consuming algae are present. Zakaria Ragab, a member of the fisheries and lakes advisory committee, links this to chronic problems in waterways between farms, which are not regularly cleared, particularly where sections have been closed, disrupting water circulation.
“Fish deaths occur seasonally in the lake and farms,” he tells Zawia3. “But this year there were sudden mass deaths: fish rose to the surface and died at roughly the same time rather than gradually, in addition to the huge increase in the quantity of dead fish.”
He adds that some fish that die from disease or environmental causes are salted and sold to consumers instead of being disposed of and kept out of the human food supply. This, he says, requires intervention and oversight.
He believes the channels between farms must be widened and cleared, with water circulation maintained. He regards the way water is exchanged between farms as an additional problem: one farm may use water and discharge it into the same channel, from which another farm then draws water. This allows pollutants to accumulate and pass from one farm to another.
He says farmers do not follow scientific recommendations to collect dead fish, bury them in pits and cover them with quicklime to prevent disease spreading between ponds. Birds, cats and dogs in the farms feed on dead fish, and their droppings reach other ponds and farms, potentially transmitting infection.
He explains that closing channels and aquatic areas and turning most of them into fish farms has sharply reduced the space for open fishing. Lake management, he says, needs to strike a balance. He calls on the Future of Egypt agency, which manages and operates the lake, to go beyond collecting rents by improving the lake’s condition, supporting fishermen and farmers, and investigating the causes of the fish deaths.
Dr Moaty Qeshta, an emeritus chief researcher at the Agricultural Research Center, links deteriorating water quality and fish deaths to changes in the lake’s character during its development project. Its waters previously ranged from fresh to mixed, with extensive aquatic vegetation, including reeds, papyrus and submerged plants, which played a vital role in naturally treating the water by producing oxygen through photosynthesis. Beneficial aquatic bacteria also oxidised some substances and pollutants arriving from agricultural and sewage drains, limiting their accumulation, he explains.
The researcher says development works, removal of aquatic vegetation and opening the inlets to larger amounts of saltwater raised salinity to more than ten times its previous levels. As a result, plants that had naturally treated the water disappeared, pollutants from the drains accumulated, and ammonia levels rose. This created conditions for microscopic algae that consume oxygen at night, suffocating and killing fish, he explains.
“The absence of fish deaths in low-salinity areas of the lake or the drains is linked to ammonia oxidation by types of bacteria such as Nitrobacter and Azotobacter,” he tells Zawia3. “Environmental change in the lake has caused the fish mortality phenomenon.” He describes the losses as catastrophic.
He proposes regulating saltwater inflows by constructing gates to control their volume rather than allowing large quantities to enter freely. Increasing the share of freshwater or less saline water could help aquatic plants that naturally treated the water return, even as agricultural drainage and water from Bahr El-Baqar continue to enter the lake.
In 2025, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced a plan to rehabilitate Lake Manzala to increase fish production, stressing the importance of preserving lake ecosystems. He raised the possibility of seasonal fishing bans in Lakes Bardawil, Manzala and Nasser to give their biological environments a chance to grow, directing the water police and relevant authorities to enforce bans during designated periods.
The Egyptian government had previously launched a national project to clear and develop Lake Manzala under the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, with participation from Damietta, Dakahlia and Port Said governorates. The three-phase project had a total cost of EGP 960 million.
The clearing works aim to make the lake a major source of fish resources in Egypt by removing encroachments and waste, developing the water body, creating radial channels to improve circulation, building model moorings and improving surrounding areas. These include El-Qazaqat and the western pond, to be added to fishing areas. The plans also include sewage treatment facilities to treat water before it enters the lake, for subsequent agricultural use.
Earlier, the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs implemented a biological treatment project for Lake Manzala with the Ministry of Irrigation, the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Development Programme, during engineer Maged George’s tenure as environment minister. Covering 200 feddans and costing USD 4.9 million, it aimed to treat 25,000 cubic metres of Bahr El-Baqar water daily before discharge into the lake, using low-cost, environmentally friendly technology.
Investigating the Causes
MP Diaa El-Din Dawoud says he has contacted the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency to form scientific and research committees to examine the causes and follow up on the crisis. He says they are considering whether chemicals discharged by some Port Said factories into Lake Manzala may have been carried by water currents towards the farms and killed the fish. In his view, this requires tracing the source and route of pollution and its direct relationship to the damage.
“If a factory caused pollution and water currents carried it into the farming area, leading to fish deaths, that factory would be responsible for compensating the affected farmers,” he tells Zawia3. “Article 163 of the Civil Code provides that any fault causing damage to another person obliges its perpetrator to provide compensation.”
He nevertheless stresses that any link between fish deaths and pollution from chemical factories around Port Said or petroleum facilities in the Zohr field remains a matter of suspicion and possibility. It requires state agencies to conduct field and scientific investigations to identify the pollution’s source and route. He calls for examining drainage pathways, reviewing facilities that produce effluent and directing their discharges to treatment plants before they reach the sewage network or the lake.
As investigations into the catastrophic levels of fish mortality continue, with no compensation payments announced, affected farmers face debts and rising feed, fuel and rent costs. The central question remains: who will bear these multimillion-pound losses and restore the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen?
