Sharjah 24 – AFP: Tonnes of dead fish have washed up on the shore of a highly polluted lake in eastern Lebanon in the past few days, an official said Thursday.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fish kill in Lake Qaraoun on the Litani river, which several local fisherman said was unprecedented in scale.
A preliminary report said a virus had killed only carp in the lake, but a veteran water expert said their deaths could also have been caused by pollution.
Hundreds of fish of all sizes lay dead on the banks of the more than five kilometre (three mile) long lake Thursday, and the stench of their rotting flesh clung to the air.
Men shovelled carcasses into a wheelbarrow, as a mechanical digger scooped up more into the back of a truck.
"It's our third day here picking up dead fish," said Nassrallah el-Hajj, from the Litani River Authority, dressed in fishing waders, adding they had so far "carried away around 40 tonnes".
On the water's edge, 61-year-old fisherman Mahmoud Afif said it was a "disaster".
"In my life I've never seen anything like it," said the father-of-two.
The Qaraoun lake was built as a reservoir on the Litani river in 1959 to produce hydropower and provide water for irrigation.
But in recent years experts have warned huge quantities of wastewater, industrial waste, and agricultural runoff containing pesticides and fertiliser flooding into it have made it increasingly toxic.
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