Lake Burullus

Lake Burullus, a lagoon lake on Egypt's Mediterranean coast between the Rosetta and Damietta Nile arms provides rich fishing grounds for the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. Since many of the irrigation canals of the Nile Delta end in the lake, it suffers from increasing pollution. In the western parts of the lake, land-winning projects of recent years have turned an increasing amount of the lake into agricultural land. Because the government does not recognise the fishermen's customary property rights, they have no influence on the the land-winning projects and receive no compensation for the loss of their fishing grounds. Further land-winning projects are being planned.

These photos were made in March 2001. The fishermen are from the village of Minyat al-Murshid. Twenty years ago, the fishing port was right next to their village, but today they have to travel several kilometres by car to reach the lake.

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(11 images)

Lake Burullus March MMI. CXXXV colour negative film. (c) Samuli Schielke. Back to the Gallery