The Ministries of Environment, Irrigation, and Health, as well as several environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), called on the Ministry of Tourism to revoke permits to establish 19 new floating hotels on Lake Nasser over the coming few months.
The NGOs said that the addition of the hotels to Lake Nasser, which already has six such hotels, will constitute an “environmental catastrophe” and could threaten Egypt’s strategic reserves of water. Lake Nasser’s water is stagnant; a factor which helps bacteria replicate faster.
A committee set up by Minister of Tourism Zouheir Garana selected three locations behind the High Dam to build marinas between 1000 and 1200 meters long, to accommodate the planned increase in hotels.
The estimated cost is LE25 million.
Mahmoud el-Kaissouni, an environment expert and the environment affairs advisor to the Minister of Tourism, said that the Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers had formed a committee of environment and water experts as well as officials from the Nasser Lake Authority to examine the environmental impact of tourism in Lake Nasser. The committee found that any additional tourist activity without a commensurate increase in service facilities will represent an environmental risk.
The committee reiterated recommendations by former Irrigation Minister Abdel Hadi Radi to not build more than three floating hotels on the lake.
El-Kaissouni said that he believes that there was no careful study of the possible environmental impact of the new hotels. Besides, he added, there is no need for additional hotels. 3000 boats already dump waste directly into the water, along with two ferries that transport passengers between the High Dam and Wadi Halfa.
The drainage of waste from floating hotels is a difficult process which involves emptying the waste into tanks that are later transported by land to Aswan.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
