Türkiye has signed a cooperation agreement with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) that will support environmental investments, urban infrastructure and climate change efforts, a top official said Friday.
The first phase of the agreement will focus on environmental projects in the Marmara region through an investment package worth around 400 million euros ($465 million), Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum said.
"We aim to provide significant support for the cleaning of the Marmara Sea and our fight against sea snot through an investment package worth approximately 400 million euros, primarily for advanced biological wastewater treatment facilities," Kurum noted.
He did not give details of any further phases of the cooperation agreement, nor how much the total investment could amount to.
Türkiye in the past faced a plague of "sea snot," a thick, slimy layer of organic matter known as marine mucilage, in the Sea of Marmara, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry. The inner Sea of Marmara, which connects the Black Sea through the Bosporus to the Aegean Sea through the Dardanelles, lies in the middle of the most industrialized region of Türkiye.
Kurum said increasing wastewater treatment capacity, expanding advanced biological treatment facilities and strengthening environmental infrastructure were among the main efforts of Türkiye's attempts to address pollution in the sea.
Kurum and AIIB Vice President Ajay Bhushan Pandey signed the cooperation agreement on the sidelines of the Climate Finance Summit in Istanbul, organized ahead of the COP31 U.N. climate conference in November.
Türkiye is one of the AIIB's largest investment destinations, Pandey noted.
