Monitoring Lake Manzala

The brackish Lake Manzala is located in northeast Egypt on the Nile Delta, near Port Said. The government drained substantial portions of the lake in an effort to convert its rich Nile deposits into farmland. This transformation caused the loss of over 195 sq km of brackish and permanent alkaline lakes between 1975 and 2005. The increases of aquaculture (dark blue) and crops (yellow) are evident in the maps.