PM urges more precautionary measures to avoid fish kills

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail urged on Monday the irrigation, housing, health and environment ministers as well as Kafr el Sheikh governor to take precautionary measures to avoid the repetition of fish die-off.

He instructed them to follow up the incident and stand on the exact reasons behind the increasing numbers of fish that are floating over the surface of Nile river in the affected area, according to a statement by the cabinet.

Citizens in the Nile Delta region were shocked to see a large number of dead fish in the Nile River distributary of Rosetta, close to the cities of Motoubas, Fawa and Desouk in Kafr al Sheikh Province.

Investigations showed that violating fish cages set up by citizens were among the reasons of Nile water pollution that adversely affected water stations in the area between Kafr el Sheikh and Beheira, the statement said.

It added that ministries concerned started taking measures to contain the incident.

The Environment Ministry is taking periodical samples of water in the affected area to examine whether it is drinkable or not. Also, a number of dredgers were recalled to remove the dead fish.

The Housing Ministry, on its part, started lowering water production of all water stations located in the affected area until it makes sure of the quality of the produced water. The ministry also increased Chlorine rates to cut down Ammonia concentrations in the water.

The Health Ministry, on its part, took samples of dead fish and made necessary tests to stand on the exact reason behind their death.

Also, field committees were formed to check on markets to make sure that the fish is fit for human consumption.

The Irrigation Ministry deployed engineers along the waterway in the affected area to make sure that all dead fish was recovered .

It also pumped 14 million cubic meters/day into Nile River distributary of Rosetta via Delta Barrage and opened ten gates of Edfina Barrage to increase water flow in the distributary so that Oxygen rate in water would be increased.

Source: MENA