Where do you go when both sea and sand are full?
Barely an inch of sand is visible on Alexandria’s bustling beaches as more and more prime real estate is reserved for paying tourists.
Midday temperatures have rarely dropped below 30°C for weeks along Egypt’s northern coast, and there’s no sign of the heatwave easing off any time soon.
City dwellers are desperate to escape the suffocating heat. Instead they’re finding themselves packed like sardines on a dwindling number of public beaches.
Alexandria, the largest city on the Mediterranean Sea, lost 82% of its public beaches from 2015 to 2021, according to Alternative Public Solutions.
The result is a sea of umbrellas on the sands of Borifage beach, as far as the eyes can see.
Its waters are so packed with families, you could barely squeeze in a stroke if you fancied a quiet swim.
‘I have not seen crowdedness like this’, local resident Ramdan Hassan said.
‘This year, Alexandria is very crowded. All beaches are full, all of them, from Abu Qeer to Bahri, all beaches are full.’
Roughly six million people live in Alexandria, a coastal city sat on the western edge of the densely populated Nile Delta, home to nearly 40million.
Most of Egypt’s poor live in this overcrowded region, and for many, Alexandria is their only option for a beach day.
Further out lie QR-coded developments, too exclusive and expensive for the average Egyptian.
‘Alexandria is cheap for poor people, it has good prices and its people are kind’, beachgoer Islam said.
‘It is very close to [the cities of] Beheira and Tanta. It is the closest summer destination for these people.’
But local authorities have spent years trying to promote the ancient city as a beach destination for tourists.
Ali al-Manesterly, chairman of the Alexandria Chamber of Travel Agencies, announced plans to create tourist-only beaches back in 2018.
He said they would provide privacy ‘to suit the needs of foreign nationalities’.
Meanwhile, miles of beachfront have been sacrificed to construction projects like a new concrete flyover called the Sadat Bridge, right where the sand meets the sea.
Officials insist this ‘wonderful addition’ will ease congestion on Alexandria’s roads without interfering with its beaches, Middle East Eye reported.
‘Whoever walks on the road will see the sea without obstruction, and, for people on the beach, the bridge will serve as an umbrella’, said Major-General Mukhtar Hussein, head of the North Coast Reconstruction Authority.
But locals view it as ‘a crime committed against the coastline’, according to resident Wael Idris.
‘The beach in this area has already been destroyed and turned into mere blocks of concrete.’
Alexandria has lost almost all of its public beaches. The number fell from 425 in 2015, to 75 in 2021.
Amro Ali, a local sociologist, previously said: ‘The few remaining public beaches are not well-kept, and citizens still have to pay to get in.
‘The few good beaches that exist charge a lot of money and are beyond the means of the average Egyptian, so there is already a class barrier in place.’
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