Agriculture Ministry develops lakes, especially Lake Qaroun

CAIRO – 1 April 2019: "The Ministry of Agriculture has been developing lakes, especially Lake Qaroun, where a belt was built around two years ago to filter the water entering the lake," said the ministry's spokesperson Mohamed al-Qersh during a phone call on dmc.

In the phone-in, Qersh commented on problems in Lake Qaroun including pollution and loss of fish, saying that the lake has been closed, with no sources to replenish its water, and that the flow of sewage affects it.

He pointed out that the ministry will further purify the lake's water in the second stage.

Qersh also stressed that the General Authority for Fisheries is adding suitable types of fish to the lake, revealing that the plan of developing Lake Qaroun will be long term and that a significant improvement will be witnessed by the end of 2019.

In December 2018, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ezz el Din Abu Steit said that the ministry set a plan to develop Lake Nasser and its fisheries in coordination with all agencies concerned.

The minister stressed that the importance of optimizing all the available resources to achieve sustainable growth and increasing fish production.

Abu Steit’s remarks came during his visit to the Lake Nasser Development Authority, accompanied by Aswan Governor Ahmed Ibrahim, and other senior officials.

Lake Nasser is a vast reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.

The lake is some 479 km long and 16 km across at its widest point, which is near the Tropic of Cancer. It covers a total surface area of 5,250 km2 and has a storage capacity of some 132 km3 of water.