A seminar was organized by Bodrum Municipality on the occasion of 22 March World Water Day.

While F. Nilay Karamustafaoğlu, Acting Director of Climate Change and Zero Waste, gave his opening speech at the public seminar held on Wednesday, March 22 at the Herodot Cultural Center and started with a minute of silence for the citizens who lost their lives in the earthquake, Bodrum Mayor Ahmet Aras, Muğla Water and Sewerage Administration Drinking Water First Branch Manager Oğuz Kağan Bardakçı, Prof. Dr. M. Doğan Kantarcı and Assoc. Dr. Çağdaş Gönen participated as a speaker and shared his thoughts on the importance of water and water saving.

In the seminar organized by the Climate Change and Zero Waste Directorate within the scope of World Water Day, which was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly on March 22, 1993, the necessity of raising water saving awareness in people was emphasized in every field such as drinking, using, irrigation, industry, in order to create and develop this culture. Opinions were shared on the issues of giving importance to education.

In the seminar, a video showing the messages that Akbelen citizens wanted to convey about the coal mine field that is desired to be expanded in the Akbelen Forest of Milas district of Muğla was held. At the end of the video, Bodrum Mayor Ahmet Aras’s words “We will not destroy Bodrum’s water” took place.

No Water No Life

Bodrum Mayor Ahmet Aras started by thanking the Climate Change and Zero Waste Directorate, technical team and those who contributed to the organization of the program, and stated that they organized this event in order to raise awareness. President Aras underlined that there would be no life without water, and said:

“Water is more important than food because water is also used to prepare food. We all know that there can be no life without water. What is important right now is the situation we are in, what stage are we in, what situation are we in? We have to determine our roadmap by taking the opinions of experts. The management of water has been transferred to the metropolitan municipalities. Both water and wastewater. The supply of water, the operation of treatment plants, and its delivery to our people through lines and networks are entirely under the authority and responsibility of our metropolitan municipality.”

“Bodrum has insufficient water”

Saying that the biggest problem in the region is the consumption of water, which is the source of life, while producing energy, Chairman Ahmet Aras stated that the Bodrum Peninsula is a very scarce peninsula in terms of water resources. Stating that the increasing water need with tourism movements turned into a crisis after the 2000s, President Aras said that the water supplied from the dams and basins in Bodrum is insufficient for the current population of Bodrum, “15 million cubic meters of water is supplied, but water is about twice that. Our main problem is that the required supply against the increasing water demand is not met. This is also about water waste. Of course, the most important of these are the water eruptions. Explosions on existing lines that cause thousands of cubic meters of water to disappear all of a sudden.” he said.

“We aim to minimize irrigation”

In many matters under the authority and responsibility of the municipality; Stating that they have created a new policy that requires minimum irrigation in the field of landscaping, parks and gardens, President Aras said, “Using mostly dry landscape and plants that are already in the vegetation of the region and that demand less water. These studies are at least small steps taken in our municipality. Our municipal council received a proposal regarding rain harvesting, and we referred it to the commission. It is about storing rainwater and using it later while new buildings are being built or in the parcels of existing buildings. There was a delay as we were waiting for a regulation on this issue. We expected the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization to conduct a study on this issue. Rain harvesting is one of the most important measures to be taken regarding this issue.” said.

“We will make arrangements if authorized”

Chairman Ahmet Aras, who also shared his ideas about reducing swimming pools and reducing lawn areas, concluded his speech as follows:

“Our three sides are almost surrounded by the seas on four sides. We cannot sell the villa without a swimming pool. This problem. If we have the authority to legislate on this issue, we will make a regulation on this issue, because we social democrats think about the environment and people’s lives; we are people with ideas, dhikr and principles that have values before money. We need to take over this administration as soon as possible and make changes very quickly, at least to prevent this destruction. For example, something like this happens in Bodrum when it comes to lawn areas: I have them examined in future projects, but of course there are thousands of residences. 150 square meter house 1500 square meter lawn. We calculated the grass needs of a family. It costs around 25 square meters per person. For a family of 3, 75 square meters is enough for your pet and your family. But since it is the landscape that sells a project, our contractors want to create a large landscape area and sell it at much better prices. We will have to restrict this in the coming period. We have ideas, we have opinions on this matter. We are ready to work together to transfer this into legislation.”

Muğla Water and Sewerage Administration Drinking Water First Branch Manager Oğuz Kağan Bardakçı on the other hand, Muğla Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Dr. After reading the message Osman Gürün prepared for the audience, he shared the total MUSKI investments made in the province and in Bodrum between the years 2014-2022 and the numerical data on the amount of water consumption and waste water in Bodrum. He also talked about Bardakçı Drinking Water Facilities and shared the data of wells, springs, reservoirs and drinking water lines.

Assoc. Dr. In his speech underlining that water is not a cheap commercial commodity, Çağdaş Gönen emphasized that it is necessary to be aware that water belongs to all living things in nature. Gönen, who also shared about how water resources are consumed, also gave information about what the Water Footprint is.

prof. Dr. M. Doğan Kantarcı shared his presentation on Climate Change and the Water Problem of the Bodrum Peninsula in the Warming Process. While presenting the records of the explosions in the İkizköy Coal Mine at the Kandilli Earthquake Center to the audience, Kantarcı also shared the data of the population and water needs of Bodrum and the calculations of Bodrum’s irrigated agricultural areas.

While the seminar ended with the answers to the questions on the subjects that the participants were curious about, water saving apparatuses used to prevent the waste of water were distributed to the participants.

Source: (BYZHA) – Beyaz News Agency