Efforts to keep Marmara Sea mucilage-free continue

ISTANBUL

As efforts to prevent marine mucilage, a thick layer of glop that invaded the Marmara Sea last year, continue with the participation of authorized institutions, a detailed report prepared by a committee set up in the Turkish parliament was presented to Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop.

The 400-page report includes the factors that cause marine mucilage in the Marmara Sea, as well as recommendations for its control and prevention.

“The most important factor in the formation of mucilage in the Marmara Sea is the increase in the ratio of nutrients in the water,” the report said.

The report pointed out that chemical fertilizers given in excess of the plant’s need for crop production, animal excreta that are not properly stored in livestock enterprises, and nutrients in silage water mix with the surface flow and create pollution by mixing with the surface and underground waters.

“It is considered that complying with the precautions to be taken while carrying out agricultural activities will significantly reduce the pollution originating from agriculture,” it noted.

Stressing that pollution caused by urban, industrial, agricultural and maritime activities should be determined in order to control and prevent marine mucilage and similar incidents again, the report underlined the need for training and awareness activities in order to reduce the impact of pollution sources and the pollution load.

The report also highlighted the importance of wastewater management due to the increasing need for water caused by rapid population growth, over-use and pollution arising in parallel with the ever-developing industrial and agricultural activities.

“The basic principle in wastewater management should be ‘minimum pollution’ and ‘maximum recovery’. In order to reduce the wastewater load in the Marmara Sea Basin, first of all, clean production practices based on the principle of preventing pollution at the source should reduce the waste water flow and pollution load,” it said.

“All domestic and industrial wastewater should be subjected to advanced biological treatment, water recovery should be provided in treatment plants, and reducing the nitrogen-phosphorus load of the Marmara Sea should be a priority measure,” it added.

Noting that the principle of using the Marmara Sea undercurrent as a conveyor for diluting untreated or insufficiently treated wastewater and transporting it to the Black Sea should be abandoned, the report pointed out that physical and biological domestic wastewater treatment plants should be transformed into advanced biological treatment plants immediately.