Turkey fails in environmental protection

Turkey fails in environmental protection
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

Chamber of Environmental Engineers, or ÇMO, and Forestry Ministry could not agree on Turkey's environmental sensitivity. Following Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu's response to Republican People's Party,or CHP, deputy Fevzi Topuz's motion to censure, ÇMO president Yılmaz Kilim chided the ministry speaking to daily Milliyet on Sunday. Kilim, blamed the ministry for using outdated data.

While most waste treatment plant projects are still under construction, the ministry claimed that the majority of waste is disposed of properly by citing a Turkish Statistical Institute's, or TÜİK, 2004 waste report.

“Turkey produces more than 20 million tons of waste in a year,” said Eroğlu. “Approximately 1.2 million tons of the waste is hazardous. Recycled waste constitutes 8 percent of the total amount. While 47 percent are disposed, 45 percent are re-used.”

However, ÇMO president Kilim rejected Eroğlu's statement and said they were still using data from 2004. According to TÜİK's July 2006 bulletin, only 70,041 tons of hazardous waste is disposed of in accordance with regulations.

“In this case, disposal ways of 456,359 tons of waste are unknown,” Kilim said. He also recalled that licensed facilities in Turkey may only store and dispose 237,334 tons of hazardous waste.

Another controversial subject on which the Ministry and ÇMO clashed was efficiency of municipalities offering waste treatment facilities. While Eroğlu said many new treatment plants have been established since 2004, Kilim said 80 percent of municipalities do not offer waste water treatment services.

Although Eroğlu said there were currently 194 sewage treatment and 32 solid waste treatment plants, Kilim insisted that 1693 municipalities without treatment systems still commit an offence against Turkish Penal Code, or TCK, and Environmental Law.

20 million citizens without sewage system

While arguments on arsenic water between İzmir and Ankara Municipalities have just calmed down, Eroğlu's statement that the healthy water rate in Turkey is above world average sparked reaction from ÇMO as well.

The ministry stated that 1910 municipalities had a drinking water network in 2004.

“The number means 93 percent of the population in municipal regions have access to drinking water,” Eroğlu said. However, ÇMO claimed the “access to healthy water” criteria does not always mean having a drinking and potable water network.

Kilim also highlighted the State Planning Organization's, or DTP, 2008 figures. The report displayed that 3,060 of 74,415 villages, districts and fields have no access to healthy drinking water.

Meanwhile, the lack of a sewage system in many municipal regions became the only common point on which the ministry and ÇMO agreed.

“People benefiting from sewage systems constitute 72 percent of Turkey's population,” Eroğlu said. This means that 20 million people still live without a sewage system.

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