Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest city, was submerged under contaminated water on Tuesday after the effects of a flood halted operations at the local sewage plant.
A huge increase in the demand for electricity after days of heavy rainfall led the supply to the city’s main sewage facility to fail, according to district governor Tarek al-Mahdi.
Thousands of families were trapped in their homes as contaminated floodwaters rose and filled the streets of the coastal city. Some were shipped out in boats and dinghies, pushed along by locals up to their knees in water.
However, not all Alexandrians were keen to flee from the rising waters. One daring resident revved up a jet-ski, a somewhat more glamorous form of water-borne transportation.
By late Tuesday, engineers had regained control of the sewage facility, and drained the excess water from the streets.
Speculating on the crisis, some Egyptian commentators suggested that a political conspiracy lay behind the sewage-water flood.
Amrou Adib, a television pundit known for his eccentric statements, said on Tuesday that there was “probably a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy behind Alexandria’s unprecedented flooding with sewage water”.
