At 6am, Mohammed Ahmed Sayed Mohammed steers his boat from al-Qarsaya island through Cairo’s Nile waters towards the capital’s riverside clubs. Fifteen years ago, he searched for fish. Now he hunts plastic bottles.
“The fish fled from the plastic chokehold,” said Sayed, who has lived on the Giza island since arriving from Assiut, further south on the Nile, as a 14-year-old fishing apprentice. He never returned to his village, marrying locally and raising three children who now live alongside him with their 12 grandchildren on the island housing 200 families.
Declining fish populations, caused by plastic pollution in the river, have forced approximately 180 fishers on al-Qarsaya to pivot from traditional fishing to waste collection.
VeryNile, launched in 2018 by the Egyptian social enterprise Bassita, has aims to clean up the river by paying fishers above-market rates for collected plastic waste. The initiative buys plastic at prices significantly higher than a standard recycling plant would pay, providing an economic alternative as fish populations decline due to pollution.
Winter fishing once yielded Sayed 25kg of fish daily. Today, he catches 4-5kg, which he can sell at 70 Egyptian pounds (£1.10) a kilogram. Plastic collection generates higher income: plastic sells for 33 pounds (£0.52) a kilogram, up from eight pounds (£0.13) in 2018 when the Very Nile initiative began. Tin cans fetch 85 pounds (£1.34) a kilogram.
During summer’s low season, Sayed collects 20kg of plastic daily. Winter peaks bring 2,000-3,000 pounds (£31-£47) monthly from plastic alone.
“I married off my three children from plastic collection income,” Sayed, 60, said. “I built a cafe for my eldest son, Mohammed, on the island, because my sons found no other work.”
Al-Qarsaya sits in central Cairo, a city of 22 million people, yet remains isolated – accessible only by ferry or fishers’ boats. The community of fishermen and farmers is battling environmental degradation, and communities shaped by the river must now confront its deteriorating ecosystem.
Fishers interviewed by the Guardian recalled catches of 6kg-17kg in previous years but today every participant works with Very Nile collecting plastic rather than relying solely on fishing.
The Very Nile initiative has collected more than 454 tonnes of plastic waste from the Nile since 2018, processing it at a recycling factory in 6th of October City. The organisation distributed 150 boats to fishers without charge and expanded to three locations, including Sayed’s birthplace in Assiut.
“We work with fishermen daily and practically live a full life inside this island,” said Amna Karamallah, 20, who leads community responsibility for the initiative while studying online at the University of Khartoum due to the conflict in Sudan.
The initiative employs 25 island women in kitchen operations, sorting workshops and product design. It established al-Qarsaya emergency clinic and began training farmers in vegetable cultivation, buying produce for the initiative’s kitchen, which serves visitors to the island.
Karamallah described experiments lining the distributed boats with fibre from recycled plastic to increase their durability and extend their working life.
Hoda Gamal, one of the workshop women, said fishers initially interpreted declining catches as divine punishment. “They didn’t know what environmental pollution or plastic pollution meant,” she said. “They didn’t realise they became guardians of Nile waters by collecting those bottles and plastic bags.”
Sayed’s wife died three years ago on the island, which does not have adequate healthcare services. His three children did not complete their education. The island lacks employment opportunities for women outside the Very Nile initiative.
Al-Qarsaya sits opposite al-Bahr al-Azam Street, one of the main streets in Giza, and hosts the Pharaonic Village tourist attraction. The island’s residents work primarily in fishing and farming on land they occupy.
Al-Qarsaya’s central location contrasts with its isolation, and the island retains greenery rare elsewhere in the capital. Waste collected by fishers, much of it from party boats operating on the Nile, is processed into products made from bottle caps and plastic bags. The fishers who once fed Cairo with fish now supply its recycling economy with raw materials transformed from the river’s pollution.
This story was published in collaboration with Egab
