The Egyptian government believes that it should be given credit for its work to clean up the country’s lakes.El-Raghy said the Lake Qarun project began in 2018 and has run for about six years, aiming to limit deterioration and restore the lake’s natural capacity to support aquatic life. Phase one included dredging the Bahr Youssef canal – which carries Nile water to Fayoum agriculture before discharging into Qarun – to ensure unobstructed flow and maintain suitable lake levels.The project also incorporates sewage infrastructure, including eight sewage treatment stations for villages around the lake, as well as rehabilitation of a treatment plant at the previously mentioned Kom Oshim complex, with a capacity of 19,000 cubic metres per day.Funding, el-Raghy said, includes a 300 million euro ($361.2m) loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and 100 million euros ($120.4m) from various government bodies within the restoration committee.He identified industrial discharge and sewage as the main sources of pollution, saying the Kom Oshim industrial complex had previously discharged waste into a treatment plant not designed to handle industrial effluent.The Ministry of Environment, he said, worked with 13 factories to cut pollution loads by half, and the upgrade of the main Kom Oshim treatment plant is now 65 percen …
