Rescuers recovered today the body of a young man from Abu Talat Beach in Alexandria, bringing the death toll from Saturday's mass drowning incident to seven, including three young women.
The incident, which also left 24 people injured, occurred at the western Abu Talat Beach in the Agamy district, West of Alexandria. The victims were part of a group trip organized by an aviation hospitality academy.
In response, Alexandria's Central Administration for Tourism and Resorts announced the complete evacuation of the western and Agami beaches as a precautionary measure, before announcing today the decision to keep them closed as they are “experiencing significant wave turbulence.”
Man-made risks
Dr. Ahmed Abd El-Halim, professor of marine environment at the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries/NIOF and its former director in Alexandria, told Al Manassa that many Alexandria beaches are known to have ocean currents that form whirlpools, making swimming dangerous.
He explained that while some beaches are naturally dangerous, the hazards at others—including Abu Talat—have been caused by human intervention and the construction of concrete barriers to break the waves.
“These structures appear to have been built without serious, evidence-based assessment of the sea’s nature in this area. As a result, whirlpools now pull swimmers under,” he explained.
He cited strong currents at Agamy and the 2018 closure of Al-Nakheel beach on the heels of 14 drownings.
Dr. Amr Zakaria Hamouda, head of the Marine Risk Reduction Center at the institute, echoed those statements, asserting that flawed barrier design is a major hazard. He stressed the area’s history of accidents and called for a new study to mitigate future risks.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mahmoud Shaheen, Director General of Forecasting and Early Warning at the Meteorological Authority, told Al Manassa his office issues wave forecasts every three days, adding that warnings of high waves do not automatically mean swimming bans, as conditions vary.
Wave heights, he added, have not changed significantly in recent years and such alerts are seasonal. This occasional phenomenon, however, raises the alarm of the long-term threat posed by global climate change, as Alexandria remains one of the Mediterranean cities most vulnerable to the compounded effects of sea level rise.
