Waste reaching coasts of Black Sea accumulates: Expert

TRABZON

In the eastern Black Sea region, the waste and rubbish people leave in high-altitude locations is being washed away into the streams as a result of severe rainfall that is causing landslides and floods, an expert warned.

In recent days, floods and landslides occurred in many provinces of the eastern Black Sea, while the streams’ colors changed from green to brown with the effective downpours.

During the floods, especially the rubbish thrown onto the high areas are accumulated on the Black Sea coasts, where they drift into the streams with increasing flow rates. The garbage reaching Çamburnu Beach within the borders of Çamburnu Nature Park, which lost its “blue flag” title in 2007 in Sürmene district of the northern province of Trabzon, creates both pollution and a distasteful view.

Meanwhile, the beach is filled with waste such as domestic waste, plastic, pesticides, metal scraps, shoes, construction materials, and experts want people to be sensitive about the waste issue that threatens the sea and marine life.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Coşkun Erüz from Karadeniz Technical University, who continues scientific studies against pollution in the Black Sea, stated that the wastes left to nature were revealed on the shore after the flood.

“These are the wastes that are thrown into nature from the highlands above Uzungöl and Sürmene, the touristic activity areas, or from the villages in the countryside, and they are carried by wind and precipitation and land in the valley beds. Some of the garbage reaching the Black Sea hits the shores, but 90 percent of it is carried to the open waters and sinks to the bottom of the sea.”

Stating that the garbage collected in the Black Sea accumulates at Çamburnu Beach and this garbage will not biodegrade for at least 500 years, Erüz urged people to be more sensitive and not pollute their surroundings.