For over 40 years, Mohamed Okasha earned his living fishing in Lake Manzala. It was his only livelihood — the means by which he fed his family, put his children through school and married them off. But over the decades, he watched the lake — or “the sea,” as locals call it — dramatically change. Expanding land grabs ate away at the fishing grounds he once knew. Wastewater emptying into it polluted the waters. Some years, the lake yielded nothing at all.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.madamasr.com/en/2025/05/08/feature/politics/a-lake-remade-how-manzalas-waters-became-clear-enough-to-fish-for-money/