Municipal teams clear 60,000 tons of sediment from İzmir Gulf
İZMİR
Marking one of the largest investments in the city’s history, İzmir Municipality has removed 60,000 tons of sediment have been removed as part of the dredging operations carried out to clean the Gulf of İzmir.
Following work near Bostanlı, dredging vessels have now anchored off Çiğli, targeting the removal of 700,000 cubic meters of sediment by June.
Kadır Aralı, a civil engineer with contractor DGN Maritime, shared insights into the progress.
“We’ve been working in the northern axis of the bay for about a month. Water depths ranged from zero to 3.5 meters when we started. As we advance toward the shoreline, we aim to achieve a depth of 4-4.5 meters across a 200-meter-wide area.”
“Currently, we’ve extracted 60,000 tons of material — equivalent to 55 shiploads — and expect to encounter more household waste closer to shore.”
Aralı emphasized the rising pollution in tandem with İzmir’s population growth and urged residents to refrain from discarding inorganic waste into waterways.
Recep Işıldak, a machine technician working aboard the dredging vessel highlighted the team’s dedication.
“We work in shifts around the clock to ensure operations run smoothly. Any technical failure would halt progress, but we’re committed to restoring the gulf.”
The project spans two phases: The first, costing 440 million liras ($12.4 million), aims to remove 700,000 cubic meters of sediment within 180 days. Subsequently, the second phase will target an additional 1.8 million cubic meters, bringing the total dredged material to 2.5 million cubic meters.