President El-Sisi Follows-up on Development of Lake Manzala

Today, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Assistant to the President for National and Strategic Projects Engineer Sherif Ismail, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Dr. Mohammed Abdel Ati, Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy, Minister of Interior Mahmoud Tawfiq, Minister of Environment Dr. Yasmine Fuad, Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities Assem El Gazzar, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El-Sayed El-Quseir, Advisor to the President for Urban Planning Major General Amir Sayed Ahmed and Head of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority Major General Hesham El Swefy.
The Spokesman for the Presidency stated that the meeting followed-up on progress pertinent to the development of Lake Manzala and surrounding areas.
The President gave directives to continue efforts to purify and develop Lake Manzala and other lakes nationwide, especially developing the marinas and fishermen’s boats and providing them with services, in order to support and maximize the return from fisheries production in parallel with purifying the lakes. This is in addition to the formation of urban and tourist communities that contribute to raising the standard of living for the citizens living around the lakes.
The meeting reviewed efforts to develop different aspects of Lake Manzala, including environmental aspects, fisheries, maritime transport, tourism, as well as the social and economic dimension. A number of projects were implemented to ensure the renewal of the water inside the lake from the Mediterranean Sea, which leads to improving the quality of water and the overall environmental situation. This is in addition to carrying out protection and disinfection works, as well as constructing bridges on the estuaries of drains at their intersection with the bridge, dredging a large section of the area, removing encroachments, among other projects that contributed to the development of the lake.
Proposals for developing and making use of the investment opportunities in Lake Manzala, which aim to preserve it and achieve sustainable development, were presented. They included procedures related to maximizing the return from making the best use of the lake, from environmental, economic, urban, social, and tourism aspects by implementing maritime and development activities.