According to the General Authority for Fish Resources Development, the Diba Triangle area of Damietta suffers from pollution caused by untreated sewage from the inefficient Elkhayatta station, as well as household waste in the Tabbal and Al-Ratmah areas and parts of Ezbet Al-Burj, in addition to pollution caused by agricultural drainage laden with pesticides from the Sheikh Dergham area.

Salah Abu Gomaa, former head of the Damietta General Authority for Fish Resources Development, adds that there are other sources of pollution, such as industrial wastewater from the port of Damietta and from companies in the Damietta industrial zone. Pollution enters the al-Bat canal and then Al-Ratmah, then drainage mixed with marine water enters the irrigation process for fish farms.

This is a violation of the Environment Law and its Executive Regulations, which compel establishments with permission to discharge polluting materials to treat them first. The drainage shall be halted administratively, and the facility's licence revoked, if treatment is not completed within the aforementioned period (a month), or if it is proven from an analysis conducted during that period that the continuation of the drainage would cause serious damage to the aquatic environment.

The investigator obtained a copy of a report issued by the Preventive Medicine Laboratory in Damietta Governorate in 2018. It reveals that the analysis samples conducted by the governate’s Environmental Health Department team for the sewage and water treatment plant in Ezbet Al-Burj in Damietta do not comply with Egyptian environmental law and executive regulations. This is due to the high amount of biological oxygen absorbed and chemical oxygen consumed, with oils and greases, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide above the limits allowed by the Ministry of Environment to be discharged into water bodies.

وفقا للصياد الخمسيني، عباس زكريا، فإن أعداد الأسماك في منطقة القابوطي تراجعت بشكل كبير، بل أحيانا لا يكون هناك أسماك من الأساس.، ويضيف أنّ أن أنواع أسماك كثيرة اختفت من المنطقة مثل الحشمان والبوري والقاروص وسمك موسى والكابوريا.

Abu Gomaa says: “After all of these costs, the farmer loses both his fish and his money owing to a lack of sewage treatment and extreme hot temperatures. If not, sewage pollution causes a decrease in the size of the fish”.

The fish Shata breeders raise have decreased in weight from 500g to 150-200g. The effects of pollution mean that two fish per kg has become four or five fish per kg, a big loss for the fish farmers.

Ali and younger brother Hassanin, along with four other brothers, inherited the 44-acre farm from their father. They know no other profession.

According to Egyptian Mobilisation and Statistics Authority fish production statistics, Damietta fish farm production decreased to 256,667 tons in 2019, compared to 264,599 tons in 2018, even though the number of farms increased from 42,679 to 62,701, including both private and government farms.

Annual Bulletin of Fish Production Statistics - Egyptian Mobilization and Statistics Authority

Dr Mahmoud Khairy, a Professor of Fish Farming at Al-Azhar University, states that fish contamination has varying degrees of severity. It harms fish by killing them, slowing their growth or exposing them to numerous infections, and as a result farmers lose a lot of money and production.

As for the impact on humans, it exposes them to a variety of diseases. Some pollutants (heavy metals) do not die when fish are cooked, producing a variety of ailments in the human body. As a result, the World Health Organisation has specified limits for heavy metals found in fish, beyond which they are unsafe for human consumption.

According to Maged Al-Badrawi, Head of the Fish Division at the Chambers of Commerce in Damietta Governorate, the grounds for stopping exports to Europe could be due to contamination of fish caused by drainage, as European countries strictly adhere to limits. “Only a few species, such as seabream, seabass and toubar, which are cultivated in the Shata region, are sold to European countries.
The Arab countries import the lowest-quality species from Egypt, such as tilapia and mullet.”

Al Fayala’s issues do not appear close to being resolved.The rent on their fish farm has increased five-fold. The Prime Minister decided in 2018 to terminate the leases of 1,300 fish farms in the area, affecting more than 300,000 people.

Many tenants have decided to cease working and give up their farms. The General Authority, however, insists that they pay their debt before handing over the farms, or face imprisonment.

One of these tenants is Mohamed Naim. He gave up his father's fish farm in the Sahel region of Shata in August last year, after settling debts that totalled 250,000 pounds (about $15,000). To do so, his mother and sister sold their ‘gold’ to ensure that no one in the family would be imprisoned. The water there has a high salinity of 70 parts per thousand, unsuitable for fish farming, and Naim was unable to complete his father's project after the rent per acre rose fourfold. Naim documented the family’s evacuation of the farm by filming and taking photos, fearful that the authorities would later seek payment for other debts he owed.
evacuation document

Diaa El-Din Daoud, a Parliamentary Representative, calls the increase in rent ludicrous, based as it is on location, closeness to the Mediterranean and pollution.
He sees it as both illogical and unfair. For example, Mohammed Naim’s polluted farm had its rent increased from 300 pounds to 2,500 pounds, a decision that made the poor poorer and the rich richer.

Maged Al-Badrawi, Head of the Fish Division at the Chambers of Commerce in Damietta Governorate, told the investigator that the fish farms in Shata are the cleanest in the country because pollution is limited to three or four sewage stations, fewer than in other governorates.