Egypt's Red Sea resort that's making waves
On the shore of the Red Sea, the forward-thinking town of El Gouna was founded with a mission: to do its part to protect the environment.
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On the shore of the Red Sea, the forward-thinking town of El Gouna was founded with a mission: to do its part to protect the environment.
As I sat under the welcome shade of a cluster of palm trees, my gaze drifted over the calm waters of the lagoon ahead of me – and was caught by a line of neatly labelled terracotta rubbish bins.
To be honest, when I'd imagined my trip to Egypt's Red Sea region, I'd pictured swimming in warm, crystal-clear waters and discovering vibrant coral reefs surrounded by brightly coloured fish. And though I was able to do all of that, it was not the marine beauty that captivated me the most, but rather
El Gouna's impressive commitment to sustainability. Instead of detracting from the natural beauty of the Egyptian resort town, the rubbish bins were a welcome sight.
In November 2022, the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as
COP27, will be held across the water at the popular Egyptian holiday resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. What many visitors don't know is that, here on the country's western coast, El Gouna has been focused on sustainability since before COP's existence.
But it has grown to be more than a glitzy vacation destination. Beyond the hotels and golf courses, the town now hosts a hospital, library, school, university and places of worship, serving a resident population of around 24,000 people. The community even has its own Egyptian Premier League football team, El Gouna FC.
What's more, in the 30-plus years since its inception, the town has been lauded for its commitment to the environment. In 2014, El Gouna became the first place in Africa and the Arab region to receive the UN-sponsored
Global Green Town award, honouring cities displaying substantial efforts and progress towards environmental sustainability and a greener community.
As a guest in El Gouna, one of the first things I noticed were the abundance of designated recycling points, a relative rarity in Egypt. Then there were the electric and solar-powered tuk-tuks ferrying people around; as well as an electric bike-sharing system, the first in Africa, launched in 2017. Amid Nubian-inspired architecture, designed to achieve maximum passive cooling, I saw signs inviting me to minimise consumption of water and detergents, eco taps in the hotel rooms to reduce water usage, and a distinct lack of plastic straws and packaging.
More specifically, the resort town has a
zero-waste system, meaning that more than 85% of all waste is reused and recycled; and it recycles 100% of its water – a process I was able to see when I clambered up a ladder to look down on the vast reservoirs of its wastewater management plant. Around 6,700 cubic metres of wastewater is treated per day, to be used principally for irrigation. Two desalination plants (some of the first on the Red Sea and the very first to utilise energy-efficient
low-temperature desalination) meet 95% of El Gouna's drinking water needs.
The town also has an onsite recycling plant that converts all its plastic into rubbish bags, clothes and hangers; and, as I found out during lunch one day, it sources 40% of its food locally. El Gouna Farm plays a key role in this latter endeavour, producing olive oil, dates, jojoba oil (to be used in skin and hair products), wool and meat (visitors can arrange tours by talking to their hotel reception). The eight lagoons of the town's fish farm provide fresh seafood, while the various hotel gardens grow herbs and vegetables: think fragrant thyme, basil, mint and coriander; bounties of garlic and spring onions; and trees laden with pomegranates, mangoes and figs.
The solution is one of El Gouna's biggest goals: to become Africa's first carbon-neutral town. This is a long-term project, conceived in 2014 in partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs. Former environment minister Laila Iskandar said, "I was impressed with El Gouna's pioneering approach to voluntarily reach carbon neutrality although the law did not require it. It represented an awareness of the importance of running a destination with a responsibility towards people and the planet."