The municipal administration of Türkiye’s western port city of Izmir, run by the opposition’s Republican People's Party (CHP), was slapped with a fine of TL 3.8 million ($110,000) for causing wastewater pollution and unsanitary disposal practices, according to the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.
Ministry inspectors have found the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality’s wastewater treatment facilities in Torbalı and Menemen districts failed to meet standard values and handed the administration separately two fines of TL 929,000 and TL 464,000, the ministry said Wednesday in a statement.
Inspectors also found Kiraz wastewater treatment facility was discharging water directly without any treatment and imposed a fine of TL 1.1 million for it, the ministry said.
In the Tire district, the municipality was practicing unsanitary disposal, dumping rubbish into an open field, for which it was handed a TL 1.2 million fine, the ministry added.
The Izmir municipality was similarly handed a TL 1.8 million fine in September for pollution that has been causing fish deaths in the Izmir Bay. It’s also facing a criminal case for its irresponsibility.
The ministry discovered two of the municipality's wastewater treatment plants pumped water directly into the bay with pollution levels exceeding the standard regulations.
Initial inspections by ministry teams revealed that the ammonia levels in Izmir Bay were 50 times higher than expected, the oxygen level, which should be 6 milligrams per liter, dropped to 1.8 and in some places to zero. The fish deaths were attributed to this oxygen deficiency.
On Sept. 9, numerous dead fish were observed floating on the surface in the Aksoy neighborhood of the Karşıyaka district, where the seawater had turned green and brown.
