Environmental degradation of Lake Manzalah and Bahr Al-Baqar have left people frightened to eat the fish, reports Reem Leila Fears that fish sold in Egypt are contaminated by dioxins spread last week following reports that fish farm stocks in Lake Manzalah and nearby Bahr Al-Baqar in Sharqiya governorate had died. Contamination of both sites had recently been in the headlines. According to reports fish tainted with carcinogens are being sold across the country. Lake Manzalah, at 50km long and 38km wide, was once one of the largest in Egypt, covering 750,000 feddans. Until recently Manzalah, and the nearby Bahr Al-Baqar fisheries, accounted for 20 per cent of Egypt's total fish catch, with Manzalah alone yielding 63,000 tons of the country's 300,000-ton annual fish harvest, and Bahr Al-Baqar 25,000 tons of the popular buri fish. In the last decade production has dropped by 90 per cent due to water pollution, and Manzalah now covers only 125,000 feddans due to massive silting of the lake. The levels of toxins in fish extracted from the lake are regularly three times the prescribed safety limit. Manzalah and Borg Al-Borollos MP Hamdeen Sabbahi points out that more than 30,000 fishermen and their families depend on Lake Manzalah as their source of income. The fishermen not only depend directly on fishing for their income, many of them also work in fishing-related industries. "Fishermen and net-makers are now losing work," says Sabbahi. "Conditions are going from bad to worse. Most of the fish coming from the lake are dead. Live fish are black in colour. Most fish markets refuse to take fish coming out of the lake." Talking to the fishermen about their plight was not easy. Amir Mansour, spokesman for the independent association Fishermen of Lake Manzalah (FLM), agreed with Sabbahi, adding that the conditions the fishermen now face differ radically from those of barely more than a decade ago. "Just a few years ago the lake allowed us to live prosperously. Now I can barely make it from one day to the next. What can we do? Fishing is our lives and our livelihood. Perhaps we should all start looking for another job if we are not to start begging for our daily food." The lake is used as a dumping ground by nearby factories, and receives large quantities of agricultural run-off, including pesticides. "We have sent official complaints to the concerned authorities. All that happens is that officials come, make empty promises, and then leave," says Mansour. The Manzalah department of the General Authority for Fish Resources and Development identifies several reasons behind depleted fish stocks, including pollutants such as pesticides, increasing amounts of sediment, the soft sand from sewage treatment and industrial waste dumped into the lake. According to a source at the authority who spoke on condition of anonymity, the high cost of cleaning up the lake and biologically treating industrial waste mean it is unlikely anything will be done to reduce contamination in the foreseeable future. Fish samples have been taken for analysis to the laboratories of the National Research Centre (NRC) in order to determine whether the levels of contamination make them unfit for human consumption. Laila Gad, of the NRC, says a detailed report will be sent to the Health Ministry's central laboratories in due course. Should the fish be shown to have unacceptably high level of toxins the whole issue will be referred to the People's Assembly's (PA) Health Committee and possibly the public prosecution. The Ministry's central laboratories tests both local and imported fish for "chlorinated substances" as well as dioxins and approve their distribution to consumers only if the results are negative. Gad refused to give any further information on the grounds that the incident is being investigated. Hamdi El-Sayed, head of the PA's Health Committee, says dioxins have been shown to have chronic long-term effects following prolonged exposure, including cancer. "Dioxins may also have adverse affects on the immune system, hormones and reproduction," he says. He points out, however, that limited consumption of contaminated fish is unlikely to be harmful. "Citizens are expected not to be affected by the fish due to the relatively short period of exposure. Adverse effects in humans usually occur only after prolonged exposure to high levels of dioxins over several decades." Dioxins are mainly by-products of industrial processes, and high levels of them have in the past been found in certain soils and food products, especially dairy products, meat, fish and shellfish. Once ingested, says the World Health Organisation, dioxins tend to accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals. They are highly toxic and have been internationally classified as a class 1 carcinogen, the highest-ranking kind. While they are acutely toxic at very low doses in some animal species, humans are much less susceptible to the acute short-term effects of dioxins, the main effect observed from massive exposures to one form of dioxin during industrial accidents being skin damage.
