Closed beaches and a hungry sea: Why do the Alexandria Sea swallow its guests every summer?

6 سبتمبر/ أيلول 2025

The "Abu Talat" beach in Al -Ajmi area, west of Alexandria Governorate, witnessed a tragic accident late last month, which killed six students and one student in one of the air hospitality academies and the injury of a number of others, during a group summer training trip from Sohag Governorate. The novels say that the sweeping waves were swept away by the vacationers, while the supervisors did not intervene to save them.

Yasser Abdel Majid, Fares's father, one of the victims, says: I was browsing Facebook when I saw the news of the accident as a post with his colleagues, then I called them to tell me that one of them had died. We are not accustomed to resorts at all, and my son Faris was in compulsory training within the academy.

In the house of Fares, friends and survivors gather to offer condolences. Hani Rashad Abdel Aziz, a friend of Fares and one of the survivors of the accident, tells: “They took us from the residence at eight in the morning, and we dragged about twenty meters. Then they told us: Go down the sea. When we descended, we saw the girls drowning, and many students tried to help them.

According to Hani's novel, Fares managed to save six girls before the sea washed him. "The most difficult moment I lived when I saw a knight drowning while they were unable to help him," he added.

Naglaa Hassan, 18 years old, one of the survivors, recounts: “Initially, we were told that we will go to the beach only for the experience, and that there is no need to go down to the water, but we have already come down. Some girls sat at the beginning of the beach, and the waves were pulling them. I could breathe, and I kept clinging to the sand until I was able to go out alone. "

The most finished reading

Marwan, the brother of Fares, continued to call his brother's phone, until one of his friends responded, saying: "Persia ... you live," what increased the shock of the family.

Faris's father says, "He was a young man who is committed and obedient, loved for good, committed to his lectures, training and work more than anyone else.

Tourist resorts, sand and waves

For its part, Alexandria Governorate issued a statement declaring an urgent investigation to determine the circumstances of the accident, including the extent of commitment to safety procedures during the trip, and to ensure that there are savior or adequate supervision on the beach. The governorate explained that Abu Talat Beach is not intended for swimming at certain times due to the seriousness of its waves.

Two days after the accident, the Egyptian authorities closed the beaches of Alexandria, Matrouh, Al -Alam and Baltim, due to the disturbance of the Mediterranean condition, and the Meteorological Authority appealed to citizens to be cautious and cautious. This is the first time that all the beaches of Alexandria were closed due to the high waves, while the governorate witnessed partial closure in previous years, such as palm beach in 2018.

Dr. Imad Al -Din Adly, President of the Egyptian Forum for Sustainable Development, explains that the increase in drowning incidents is related to the phenomenon of "swirls" and the high level of waves, and this often coincides with repeated warnings of vacationers not to go to the sea. Adly believes that the high rates of drowning are linked to the lack of experience of vacationers and their influence on harsh climatic conditions, in addition to random human interventions, such as building surfing, while tourist villages are called in the northwestern Egyptian coast, without adequate studies or official permits, which led to a change of surfing behavior and the emergence of dangerous swirls.

In the same context, Counselor Sabri El -Gendy, the former advisor to the Minister of Local Development, affirmed the existence of flagrant construction violations on the beaches, explaining that the law prohibits construction at a distance of less than 200 meters from the sea, but most of the tourist villages did not adhere to that, which increased the danger of beaches on vacationers.

The sea gets angry and eats beaches

Despite the recurrence of drowning incidents, Major General Ahmed Khaled, Governor of Alexandria, said that the number of drowning cases this year decreased by 70% compared to the past years, with the continued training and qualification programs of the rescuers.

In the context of combating climate change, Egypt started in 2019 the Nile Delta Protection Project until 2025, with the funding of $ 31 million from the Green Climate Fund of the Climate Agreement on the Framework of Climate Change, and the United Nations Development Program to provide protection for low coastal areas in five governorates, through the installation of a low -cost dam, and the establishment of a system to monitor sea level changes and its impact on corrosion Beaches.

A study of the researcher, Israa Al -Masry, at the Department of Sea Sciences at Alexandria University, showed that the coastal area between Dabaa and Ras Al -Hikma lost on average about 55 cm from the coastal strip annually between 1990 and 2020. This rate is very high compared to what the World Bank report recorded on coast erosion in the Middle East and North Africa, which was estimated that the entire Egyptian Mediterranean coast lost about 10 cm annually between 1984 and 2016.

The head of the Egyptian Forum for Sustainable Development indicates that climate changes and the rise in the sea level associated with global warming are accompanied by repeated air storms and fluctuations on coastal areas, leading to a change in the nature of the beaches and the high closure rates, which was not present in the same way in the past. He also believes that the weakness of vacationers' awareness increases the risk of drowning, especially when not adhering to beach management warnings.

Faris's father strongly denied what was circulated about the existence of red flags that warn of the danger of going down to the sea before the accident, stressing that "the red flags did not exist until after the boys were recovered and raised by ambulance."

How do we face the anger of the sea?

Counselor Sabri El -Gendy presented a set of solutions to ensure the safety of vacationers, which is the re -training and rehabilitation of divers on all beaches, providing the beaches with modern rescue devices, not being satisfied with human diver only, obligating vacationers to follow the instructions of the beach, and not to go down in days with high waves, and to demand the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation with a comprehensive study of risks related to the beaches, and advertising Results for the audience, with the use of barriers to prevent getting out in dangerous places.

Imad Al -Din Adly, head of the Egyptian Forum for Sustainable Development, agrees with him, calling for the adoption of the concept of "integrated management of coastal areas" in Egypt, which requires continuous cooperation between all concerned parties, such as the Beach Authority, governorates, local authorities, and influential local communities, as it is a phenomenon that needs a comprehensive national strategy, and cooperation between all concerned authorities to protect the lives of citizens and our beach wealth.

Adly calls for the necessity of intense training for "guides" or beaches supervisors to ensure that they are well directed to vacationers and prevent them from getting off at dangerous times, with the increase in the numbers of these supervisors, and it is also proposed to impose fines on those who descend the sea despite the warnings, to deter them and make them think "a hundred times before descending."

The President of the Egyptian Forum for Sustainable Development calls for the development of advanced early warning devices in Egypt to predict the coastal storms, currents and fluctuations before they occur, to take the necessary measures to deal with them effectively.

Adly calls for the imposition of "environmental impact assessment" studies as a basic condition for any activity related to beaches. He stressed that these studies must be implemented in cooperation with the scientific authorities, universities and research centers, and that those who do not commit to their conduct are criminalized.

At the end of the day, Marwan, the brother of Fares, sits next to his father who reads the Qur’an, and says: "Persia was always in my back, even if he did nothing but sit at home ... for me he represented safety after my father."