Sabri Ozel, a Kurdish businessman and Semdinli local, prepared a detailed report on the environmental pollution and submitted it to Turkey’s Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and seven relevant institutions to take action.
In his report, he warned that sewage dumping along rivers and streams causes both diseases and environmental pollution.
“The report was prepared with the support of our businessman Sabri Ozel and consisted of 28 sections. It also includes photos and videos. We have also submitted the report online to several relevant ministries such as the tourism and environment ministries,” Miradkhan Semzini, a contributor of the report, told Rudaw’s Shawkat Harki.
Soon after the report, the municipality of Semdinli began taking action by removing parts of the trash.
Arif Yilmaz, deputy district mayor of Semdinli, said that authorities will do their best within their limited resources to clear the entire region of litter, including the rivers.
“We have done some work here and cleaned up parts of the trash. Let our works be seen. We also do not want our district to remain dirty. There is a part left and we will start cleaning the rest as a campaign with the help of our people,” Yilmaz said, adding that the process will take around 15 days.
The biggest amount of litter is dumped along a road connecting Semdinli with Derecik (Rubarok) town – an international road leading to the Iraq-Turkey border. The pileup of trash also flows into the Haji Beg river.
Adam Opengin, a fisherman, said that they used to catch a large amount of fish daily in the past, but now there are almost no fish left in the water.
“The reason is the amount of trash in the water,” Opengin complained. “We do not appreciate this country’s nature because no one cares about it. Some people talk about it, but no one does any serious work.”
“We used to catch big fish, but now there are no more fish,” he lamented.
Semdinli, also known as Shamzinan, is a predominantly Kurdish district in the Hakkari province of southeast Turkey.
