User:Ahmedsalama8/Arab Al-Aylakat Lake

It is a fresh water lake located in the province of Qalioubia in Egypt, near Cairo-Ismailia agricultural road, about 30 kilometers from center of Cairo. It was a result of the basalt extraction process, which was carried out by an Egyptian mining Company. The lake consists of three water pools with a total area of ​​557,621 square meters (approximately fifty six hectares). The largest area of ​​these three pools is 369,394 square meters and has a depth of tens of meters. The water was pumped out from the lake by the Mineral Resources Company during the basalt extraction process, pumped out into Um Rafa'a canal (one of the small canals branching from Ismailia canal) to irrigate the village's agricultural lands. However, its relatively high salinity, which was not suitable for the irrigation of some corps led to weakness of the agricultural production of this area .Pumping out of water was stopped later causing the water level to rise in the lake, threatening to flood the neighboring village. The government construct a water weir to drain the excess water at Bahr al-Bakr Drain, which is about half a kilometer from the lake.

Name Origin
It was named "Arab Al-Aylakat Lake " because it is located near the village of Arab Al-Alaykat - Al-Khanka City - Qalyubiya Governorate.

A Center for Earthquake
According to the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Global Seismic Hazards Monitoring Project, the lake was above the center of a quake measuring four and four tenths of a degree on the Richter scale on August 24, 2002. The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers ,It was felt by residents of Cairo and the surrounding areas, not causing any damage to mention.

Lake Environment
The lake is located within a geological formation of the basalt rocks, and grows on the shores Arundo plant, there are some small rocks islands acts as a home to some species of local birds such as Cattle Egret and some species of migrating birds, there are some species of Nile fish such as Nile tilapia and catfish. Currently, there is a significant threat to the lake environment due to the presence of a nearby landfill and the lake is used by some local residents as a dumping site for their homes and there is building violations.

Lake Development Project
There have always been several projects probosed for each governor responsible for the province of Qalyubia, the development of Lake Arab Al-Aylaykat one of those repeated theses, but it remained in oblivion, it is worth mentioning that the first official took the project seriously and put it to study at an engineering office was Eng. Mohamed Abd El-Zaher, He was hoping to transfer the nearby landfill to another place. He also visited the lake and removed the surrounding structures. It was announced that the lake would be converted into a touristic and a global treatment resort that includes a green belt around the whole area and the construction of a walkway characterized by the nature of each country in coordination with various embassies and construction of Academy, hotels and chalets. The Governor said that he is impressed with the idea and he is ready to implement the project after coordinating with the other ministries to start implementation and propose the project to investors.