Chemical effluent dumped directly into the sea threatens marine life, especially the remaining Mediterranean green sea turtles.
On the 6th March, the eve of a 9-day national holiday with all official offices closed, the staff at the Kazanli Soda-Chrome Factory in southern Turkey, bulldozed the containing wall of an effluent collecting basin thus releasing its entire contents directly into the sea. The entire sea area turned red wiping out marine life including local fish stocks. Worse still in conservation terms is the fact that Kazanli's beaches hosted one of only three surviving nesting populations in Turkey of the critically endangered Mediterranean green turtle Chelonia mydas.
The Mayor of Kazanli Municipality, Kenan Yildirim, is in despair at this environmental crime that threatens the local fishing industry and public health. Water samples for analysis have been taken under the auspices of the local Representative of the Turkish Ministry of the Environment. It is feared that the chemicals discharged into the sea contain chromium and chromates, highly toxic substances causing skin ulceration and cancer. If this turns out to be true, a complete ban on fishery and a ban on swimming in the coming tourist season should be considered.
MEDASSET's involved expert comments, "I have to admit that I never saw water and mud samples like this: red water, yellow water, awful smelling greenish mud, etc. The samples much more resemble pure chemicals than samples taken from the natural environment. We still do not know what kind of chemicals are in the samples. Can one image that people have to live in such an environment, let alone the critically endangered green turtles?"
Green turtles now only nest on a few beaches in Turkey and Cyprus where they also feed in shallow sea grass beds offshore. It must be feared therefore that they will be seriously affected by this ecological disaster, not just from the immediate aftermath but mainly by the long term effects on their population.
Already in August 2000, MEDASSET (The Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles) had reported that nesting green turtles there were covered with white calcareous layers on their shells, heads and extremities thought to be caused by effluents from the Soda-Chromium factory. The factory is thus apparently threatening the Mediterranean environment on a continuous basis, the human population and nature in equal terms. The Government of Turkey should take immediate steps to stop these illegal activities of the factory. The discharge of chemical waste is against many international obligations on Turkey, including the Barcelona and Bern Conventions.
Please forward this Press Release to your local and international press and agencies for global coverage. We need the world to hear of, and to react to such ecological disasters as this.