Water quality management for sustainable development of Lake Burullus

Abstract EN

Lake burullus, the second largest lake on the northern coast of Egypt, is suffering a serious deterioration in water quality due to the huge amounts of water contaminated with fertilizers and pesticides.

this resulted in a significant reduction in the area of the lake and a severe degradation of its ecosystem, including decreased yields from fisheries, consequently creating serious socio-economic challenges for local fishing communities and affecting Egypt's national fish production.

a few years ago, the Egyptian government did everything possible to rehabilitate and restore lake burulls through a major improvement project to restore ecological and economic values.

however, the main objective of this research is to assess and analyze the general environmental conditions of the current lake to manage the future development of the lake's sustainability.

therefore, delft 3D flow module was developed and calibrated to simulate lake hydrodynamic.

moreover, many proposed scenarios introducing integrated solutions to overcome current and future water quality challenges.

the results of the study confirmed that the use of sewer wastewater treatment scenarios for drain discharges is strongly recommended.

furthermore, the construction of an additional new artificial inlet (Boughaz) can achieve the exchange of water with the sea and the necessary lake circulation scheme, but has the disadvantage of increasing the average salinity of the lake.

the study concluded that the developed model is efficiently simulates the hydrodynamics of the lake and can serve as an effective decision-making tool for future remediation projects to maintain environmental improvement.