BACTERIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON WADI EL-RAIYAN LAKE, FAYOUM, EGYPT

Abstract

0 0 Wadi El-Raiyan lakes (28 15 and 29 17 )are located in Wadi El-Raiyan depression which lies SW of El-Faiyum Governurate in the western desert of Egypt. Their total surface area is about 40,000 feddans (1 Fed.= 4200 m . The

lakes receive 200 million

m3 agricultural drainage water

through El-Wadi Drain annually from the agricultural lands of El-FaiyOm Governurate in order to solve the problem of rising water level in Lake Garun. Wadi El-Raiyan project consists of a canal (9.5 km long) leading from El-Wadi agricultural Drain in El-Faiyum Governuate right to its desert boundary where it discharges into the first Lake of Wadi El-Raiyan via a tunnel (9 km

long, 3m¢).

The first Lake is 52.8 km2

and the second is 110 km2

The project began in October 1968 and impoundment began in1973. A hyper-arid region has thus been changed into 2 man-mede lakes with the original habitat in the 2 depressions submerged under water. The net result was a series of changes in the existing ecosystem. •As far as the writer is aware the bacterial flora content per se in this newly established habitat has not been