The impact of the unplanned structural adjustment of breakwaters on the marine environment of port of Alexandria, Egypt : a lesson learnt for future concern

Abstract EN

Port of Alexandria (POA) is the main trade port in Egypt.

It handles more than 75% of Egypt’s external trade and plays a major role in the national economy.

Due to the excessive shipping activities in the port and the industrial-agricultural-municipal effluents, the port is subjected to a pollution problem.

Human intervention to protect the port against the wave and current actions by erecting improperly designed breakwaters and changing the natural coastal forms all often led to increased pollution.

This study evaluates the structural adjustment carried out on the breakwaters in POA pertaining to their negative impacts on the marine environment and assesses the present quality of the marine environment in the port.

A set of maps are used to delineate the development of the breakwaters in POA since 1857.

The heavy metal concentrations for bottom sediment samples that are collected in 1980 and 2010 are used for comparing the marine environmental quality in the respective years.

The adjustment carried out on the breakwaters led to the stagnation of POA water.

Consequently, the pollutants are trapped in the port basin and the environmental quality is decreased.

The increase in ratios of heavy metals’ concentrations, between 1980 and 2010, are 1.4 for iron, 1.5 for zinc, 2.4 for copper and 2.6 for cadmium.

To remedy the POA deteriorated environment the study proposes a tunneling project that would enhance the water exchange between the port and the Mediterranean Sea and consequently improve the water quality by continuously washing out the polluted water masses.