Türkiye’s third-largest province and a stronghold of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Izmir suffers from pollution due to mismanagement. The province’s municipalities controlled by the party face a myriad of fines for allowing pollution to run wild.
Inspections by the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change expose violations of environmental regulations by municipalities in the province. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality notoriously led the list of municipalities handed down hefty fines. The ministry also initiated legal proceedings against local administrations accused of harming the environment and the Gulf of Izmir.
The ministry conducted 188 separate inspections last year at wastewater treatment and solid waste storage facilities operated by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality and issued fines totaling TL 16.3 million ($423,915) for violations of environmental regulations. The municipality, however, appears undeterred and continues violations, resulting in another total fine of TL 15.1 million this year so far.
In January, the ministry issued fines amounting to TL 8.3 million to the municipality for six violations, after discovering that the municipality was responsible for discharging untreated household wastewater into streams, for the discharge of sewage sludge into the Gulf of Izmir, and diverting sewage water to the Gali Stream. In February, the ministry issued another TL 1.6 million fine to the municipality for discharging wastewater into the gulf. In March, the total amount of fines for the municipality was TL 5.2 million for violations of regulations.
Elsewhere, piles of garbage, stemming from strikes by municipality workers complaining of low wages, threaten public health. This month, the ministry issued fines of approximately TL 1.9 million to the municipality of Urla and TL 3.7 million to the municipality of Bayraklı, respectively.