On Wednesday, Egypt’s Alexandria witnessed a huge tidal wave that reached over five metres-high reaching into streets and destroying seafront buildings.
Alexandrians are used to big tidal waves especially before or during their annual Nawat or storms. Within a day or two, the Maiden of Mediterranean city will meet “Nawaa Kassem” or Kassem Storm. The city has just recovered from another storm from a couple of weeks ago.
Yet what happened on Wednesday was new even for the Alexandrians when it comes to the height of the tidal wave and its force.
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| The Tidal wave that destroyed part of the corniche fence in Lauran on Wednesday Amir Mansour |
The tidal wave did not stop and flooded in anger the club’s lounge and parking as if nature and the sea declaring their rejection for this human encroachment.
Part of the corniche fence collapsed in the Louran district too resulting in the injury of a young man.
What caught my attention was the extreme height of the wave.
According to Alexandria’s Sanitary and Drainage Company, the wind speed reached 65 km.
A scene that we are not used to in Egypt.
Some say that this happens from time to time but due to the faulty expansion of buildings on the seafront we got a scene like that.
But on the other hand, others are concerned that this is another symptom of climate change and its ongoing sea-level rise.
Historically, Alexandria was among the old-world cities that were hit by climate change and the sea level rise in time before Christ.
Our current Alexandria is built over another Alexandria that is partially sunken in the Mediterranean.
In modern times, Alexandria is one of the Mediterranean UNESCO
I think we should have an open dialogue about the future of Alexandria and the North Coast when it comes to climate change.
It has to be an open serious dialogue.
It is more pressing than the development and huge construction projects there.
In fact, there is no use in building huge projects if the city is going to vanish “heavens forbid” under the sea.
I am putting hope that the future of Alexandria and its sister cities on the Mediterranean coasts will be discussed openly in the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference 2022 “COP 27” in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh.
In COP 26 last month, British PM Boris Johnson warned that Alexandria may vanish along with other cities in the world if the sea levels continue to rise due to climate change. He named it along Mimai.
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