An extensive nationwide program for developing the Egyptian lakes, Lake Manzalah: From an ambiguous to a bright future

Abstract

The wetlands are one of the most indispensable habitats providing essential services for the aquatic natural life and human needs. Lake Manzalah is one of the Egyptian Mediterranean wetlands along the Nile Delta coast. The increase in the rate of development along Lake Manzalah produced many environmental problems and intensive pressure, which changed its ecology. The Lake was subjected to gradual shrinkage during the last decades because of land reclamation and the transformation of considerable parts of its area into fish farms, as well as half of the Lake was infested with islets that reduced the surface area of its open water. In the middle of the last decade, the Egyptian Government has launched an extensive national program for the sustainable development of the Egyptian lakes. Its objective was to improve the quality of the water resources for the present and following generations. In the last years, one of the quick results of this program was to increase the area of Lake Manzalah and to decrease the area of islets.

Keywords

• Wetland
• Lake Manzalah
• Islets
• GIS
• Satellite image