Monitoring project initiated to clean Lake Küçükçekmece

ISTANBUL

Istanbul University and the Avcılar Municipality have initiated a monitoring project in a bid to clean Istanbul’s Lake Küçükçekmece and restore its lost biodiversity.

Within the scope of the project, where the works will continue until June, it is planned to enable the lake and its biodiversity to gain its former health by applying an effective and sustainable restoration technique.

“We are trying to have an MRI of the lake,” said Meriç Albay, the supervisor of the project, adding that a huge amount of waste awaits them at the bottom of the lake.

Stating that Lake Küçükçekmece is one of the essential water sources in Istanbul, he said that over time, with the formation of new industrial and residential areas, the lake became a place used by millions of people.

“We have polluted it with industrial and domestic wastes. Lake Küçükçekmece is a place in the middle of the city and an area that needs to be carefully monitored,” Albay noted.

“What’s the problem of first priority right now? What problems are there at the bottom? What problems are there in the environment? We are trying to understand these things. We measure roughly 40-50 parameters,” Albay explained.

Stating that the pollution problem in the lake is getting bigger, Albay pointed out that this problem has been experienced since the 1990s.

“Fish deaths occur at regular intervals every year. Even then, the last sturgeon died two years ago,” Albay said while explaining that the pollution poses a grave threat to living creatures in the lake.