CAIRO: Thousands of dead fish were seen floating on the Nile River Sunday in Beheira, Delta; more than 1,000 kilos of fish were collected to be eliminated and 200 kilos were seized from vendors in the local market, Youm7 reported.
Water samples were taken every two hours from the river, to make sure that city water was potable, as well as to detect the reasons for the mass fish deaths. The samples will also be taken from drinking water plants.
A committee of representatives from the ministries of health and supply, and the veterinary authority and supply investigations department was formed to conduct a comprehensive scan on fish in all cities that overlook the Rosetta branch of the Nile to eliminate all dead fish.
This is not the first time mass fish deaths in Beheira and the Rosetta branch of the Nile have occurred.
The same incident took place in June, and the officials said it was due to ammonia poisoning and lack of oxygen in the water. The same case was reported in January 2014 in Rosetta city.
The Ministry of Irrigation said in June that the fish suffocated due to hot weather and lack of oxygen in overloaded commercial fish farms concentrated in the area, as well as the blocking of Nile water at the High Dam in south of Egypt in the flooding season which coincides with the summer.
Thousands of privately-owned fish farms, most of which are unauthorized, are seen along the Rosetta branch of the Nile especially around Kafr al-Sheikh governorate; a home to over 25,000 farms.
Irrigation Minister Hossam Moghazy had vowed in June to remove all the commercial fish farms in the area. “It is a matter of national security,” Moghazy was quoted by Youm7.