Habi Center submits proclamation to Attorney General regarding Nile river pollution and fish death

ESCR-Net member, Habi Center for Environmental Rights, submitted a proclamation to the Attorney General in Egypt under number 1394 accusing the government of negligence in taking the necessary procedures to protect Nile River from the server pollution.

Proclamation 1394 is derived from the findings in the Ministry of Health report, which announced that the Nile River is exposed to severe pollution caused by multiple factors including industrial drainage, sanitation, and fish cages. 

Recently, the Ministry of Environment has recorded several pollution incidents in the Nile Waters: the leakage of wastewater in the area between the High Dam and Aswan reservoir, the dumping of dead animals and the release of industrial solid waste.   The Nile River has witnessed many pollution forms such as oil spots and fish death, which reached high rates during last December and January and mainly occurs in Rasheed Branch on whose shores many factories locate discharge into the Al Rahawy outlet.   These forms of pollution did not stop despite the declarations of the Prime Minister and other ministers.

Despite the many incidents of pollutions from Aswan to Damietta and Rosetta branches, the Egyptian parties concerned with the Nile lack acomprehensive understanding of the quality of the Nile waters.  Further, there are only a few official reports on pollution incidents and deterioration of the water quality in specific locations in the southern governments. 

Although officials in charge of drinking water in Egypt state that the water is safe and suitable for human consumption, but based on their analyses of the quality of the drinking water, media reports indicate that water poising incidents and fish poising continue to exist because of the deterioration of the water quality. 

Furthermore, technical reports conducted by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights indicate that Egypt may become a water-scarce country by 2025, particularly since it consumes far more water than it can replenish.  

Although a supreme committee for the Nile River was formed under the Hosni Murbarak regime, the responsibility for the water management of the Nile in Egypt is still distributed among three ministries: the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development, and the Ministry of the Environment.  

Furthermore, the legal unit in Habi Center for Environmental Rights accuses the prime minister, Water resources and irrigation minister, housing and utilities minister, minister of state for environmental rights, head of environmental affairs agency, executive manager of EAA and minister of interior.  In addition, in its proclamation, the center calls the Ministry of Health to uncover what it possesses of documents and will specifically look at reports or any analysis results of Nile River or that regarding fishes in different places especially Al Bihara and Kafr El Sheikh Governorates.

For further information see www.hcer.org