Prevailing Situation of Turkish Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants

1. 1st Zer0-m Conference on Sustainable Water Management Prevailing Situation of Turkish Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants I. Arslan-Alaton, M. Gurel, G. Eremektar, S. Ovez, A. Tanik, D. Orhon ITU Department of Environmental Engineering arslanid@itu.edu.tr March 15-16, 2005 İstanbul

2. MEDAWARE This work is a part of the EU project titled “DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS AND GUIDELINES FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE SUSTAINABLE URBAN WASTEWATER TREATMENT AND REUSE IN THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES (MEDAWARE)” which is financially supported by the European Commission, Euro-Mediterranean Partnership,Euro-Mediterranean Regional Programme for Local Water Management. Our project coordinator is Prof. Loizidou from NTUA, Greece.

3. The main objectives of the MEDAWARE project are • To identify the prevailing situation of water resources, urban wastewater treatment and management (for our project group : in Turkey) • To develop tools and a reliable database for the promotion of sustainable urban wastewater treatment • To improve the already existing national policy • To establish guidelines to be utilized by the responsible authorities on the most efficient solutions regarding the operation of the wastewater treatment systems

4. Water Requirements of Turkey (1990 - 2000) The water demand of agricultural irrigation/activities is quite high

5. The overall situation of water supply (2000 figures) • Turkey is divided into 3227 municipalities • 2359 of them have a drinking water network • 143 of these municipalities have a drinking water treatment facility • Lacking infrastructure, insufficient number of treatment facilities, water leakage (32% of total supply) are the major obstacles • Illegal water consumption (37% of the total supply) hinder the efficient use of municipal water facilities (The State Planning Organization, 2001)

6. Assessment of Rural and Urban Water Withdrawal Groundwater withdrawal for agricultural activities is high, whereas the main source of rural water withdrawal are dams and rivers

7. The database for the realization of the project’s scope was established by following a step-by-step survey given as; • Identification of the population served by UWWTPs • Presentation of the current technologies (physical, biological and/or advanced) applied in the country’s UWWTPs • Qualitative and quantitative assessment of the current situation of Turkish UWWTPs • Prevailing effluent disposal criteria, methods and best practices in Turkey • Reuse potential of effluent received from UWWTPs in Turkey • Elucidation of needs for upgrading UWWTPs to comply with the currentand future discharge criteria

8. Present Situation of Turkish UWWTPs (January 2004 - ) • There are currently 129 UWWTPs in Turkey • They serve a grand total of 30.374.000 capita • Only 43 out of 81 provinces have urban wastewater treatment plants, a few of them are out of operation • 33 plants are located in the 12 Greater Metropolitan cities Istanbul : 13 UWWTPs Antalya : 14 UWWTPs Kocaeli : 6UWWTPs

9. Provinces of Turkey and distribution of the country’s UWWTPs

10. Population served by UWWTPs in the provinces of Turkey

11. Effluent Discharge Methods and Practices in Turkey

12. Reuse Potential of UWWTP Effluent in Turkey • Although the Turkish legislation on wastewater reuse in agriculture has been established in 1991, there is no major improvement in the realization since then. • Only fewapplications exist in small communities where domestic wastewater is used for irrigation of forest areas, gardens and parks. • There are several planning procedures for the treatment of urban wastewater and its reuse for agricultural irrigation; for instance, treated effluent originating from Ankara UWWTP is used for irrigation of several crops. • Konya province is particularly known as the “grain cellar” and the largest agricultural area of the country. Currently there are planning efforts of using Konya UWWTP effluent for the irrigation of cereals. • A comprehensive, regional project known as the Southern Anatolia Project (In Turkish: Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi; Abbreviation: GAP) also features wastewater treatment and reuse for agricultural irrigation purposes.

13. CONCLUDING REMARKS • The required data and information were highly scattered among the State Authorities and not gathered from a single organization. • Besides, some of the data had to be estimated based on literature survey and personal contacts with the related governmental personnel. • Part of the data necessitated confirmation and were considered to be less reliable. • Proper recordings of data still lack and needs formation of a systematic database that can easily be accomplished even by public.

14. CONCLUDING REMARKS • Infrastructure developments should be immediately involved in the databank and all the obtainable information must be up-dated (2003 - ?). • There is a chronic imbalance in population distribution of the country, making the water and wastewater issues a difficult task. • Most of the population is settled around the coasts of the country and the highly industrialized regions due to climatic conditions, geographical structure, existence of transportation network, fertility of land, and political aspects.

15. CONCLUDING REMARKS • Sustainable water and wastewater management cannot be promoted unless the existing situation is well defined. • It also necessitates the investigation of the national monitoring and control acts, as without an idea on the national water and wastewater policies it is very difficult to establish a healthy and satisfactory management strategy. • The UWWTP effluent reuse potential has to be explored and agricultural reuse has to be practiced

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