Rising sea levels due to climate change have become a threat to Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria as the phenomenon is leading to inundation of poorer neighborhoods and archaeological sites in the city. In 2015, a severe storm flooded large parts of the city, causing at least six deaths and the collapse of some two dozen homes, exposing weaknesses in the local infrastructure. As result authorities are now prompted to erect concrete barriers out at sea to break the tide. Rising sea levels are a phenomenon happening to the melting of polar ice caps as a result of global warming.

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The rising sea level

Sea level in Alexandria rose by an average of 1.8 millimeters annually until 1993, Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said. Since 2012 it has reached as high as 3.2 millimeters per year, enough to threaten building foundations.

The reason why Alexandria is susceptible to the rising sea is that it is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea and backs up to a lake. Beaches spreading across a coastline of 60 Km are already showing signs of erosion. U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that global sea levels could rise by 0.28 to 0.98 meters (1-3 feet) by 2100, with “serious implications for coastal cities, deltas, and low-lying states.”

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Due in part to upstream dams that prevent the replenishment of silt and to natural gas extraction, the land on which Alexandria is built, along with the surrounding Nile Delta, is sinking at roughly the same rate.

Up to 734 square kilometers (more than 280 square miles) of the Nile Delta could be inundated by 2050 and 2,660 square kilometers (more than 1,000 sq. miles) by the end of the century, affecting 5.7 million people, a 2018 study suggested.

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Residents at risk

People living in low-lying areas were asked to leave their homes after severe flooding in 2015. Although the housing ministry provided them apartments, there are many who are still rebuilding and relocating during calamities. “We know it is risky. We know that the entire area will be underwater, but we have no alternative,” a 52-year-old resident of the Shatby neighborhood said. Although authorities have built sea defenses it is hardly working as the waves seem larger and more dangerous every year, another resident added.

Similarly, Sayed Khalil, a 67-year-old fisherman from the neighborhood, said “It is hard to imagine that el-Max will be here in a few decades. All these houses might vanish. The area you see now will be an underwater museum.

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Threat to the city's antiquities

Alexandria has survived invasions, fires, and earthquakes since it was founded by Alexander the Great more than 2,000 years ago. One of its remaining ancient monuments is the citadel of Qaitbay is vulnerable, said Ashour Abdel-Karim, head of Egyptian General Authority. The increasingly powerful waves and currents had pushed into the foundations, forcing authorities to install a long line of concrete sea barriers visible from the built-up downtown waterfront, known as the Corniche, he added. More than $120 million were allocated by the Egyptian government for the barriers and other protective measures along the shore, Abdel-Karim said.

Inland sites such as Kom el-Shouqafa and prophet Daniel street are also under threat. Mohammed Mahrous, who works for a bookstore on the Street compares the before, after and future scenario of the area.

“We are aware that this street, which survived for hundreds of years, could be underwater in the coming years, in our lifetime.....Every year the waves are stronger than in the previous one. The winter is harsher and the summer is more sweltering,” he said.

(With inputs from AP)

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