Set between irrigated farmland and rocky desert south-west of Cairo, once pristine Qarun Lake used to teem with tilapia, bass, bream and shrimp, offering generous catches to fishermen from surrounding villages, Reuters reports. But pollution from agricultural runoff and industrial and domestic waste has, in recent years, sullied its beauty and sent those stocks plunging, destroying an industry that had provided jobs for generations, fishermen say. “The lake was so generous; all kinds of fish were abundant. The taste of the fish was the best and the prices were good,” said one Farag Abdel Sattar Awad. “But the lake became polluted, so people started to find alternatives to fishing,” he said. Only tiny fish of little value can still be … Continue reading Pollution erodes fish stocks and livelihoods in Egyptian lake