Mine licenses disturb locals
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Doğan News Agency
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Kasım 11, 2008 00:00
MUĞLA - A local official in the Aegean town of Marmaris has told a parliamentary environmental commission the tourism town risked being turned into a "molehill."
Parliament’s research commission of environmental problems gathered in Muğla Sunday. Hakkı Bayındır, Marmaris deputy mayor and president of the town council, spoke on the mining privileges and how 52 percent of Marmaris could become a molehill due to the mining licenses given out to 41 different companies. Bayındır demanded these licenses be revoked immediately.
"The correspondences between us and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources on closing the mine in Osmaniye Village and the revocation of their license brought us to a very interesting point," said Bayındır. "When we asked the ministry how many companies had demanded licenses to mine in the area, we faced the number of 41".
Bayındır said it was a frightening image when looked on a map because there was a chance 52 percent of Marmaris would be turned into a molehill. There are 24 companies from Muğla; 10 from Istanbul, five from Ankara and one each from Adana and Bursa that received licenses for mining, according to Bayındır.
One of the firms from Istanbul has licenses for seven different locations and the mine at Osmaniye has 15 different licenses, Bayındır said. "This has become a national problem. If this many locations may have active licenses at a tourist area like Marmaris; you think about the rest". Bayındır claimed these licenses would be an excuse to chop down forests in order to open roads and said they did not even want to think of what would happen next.
Mehmet Şahin, Muğla provincial director of the environment and forestry, said the biggest environmental problems in Muğla were fish farms and the thermal power plant in Yatağan. "All municipalities must build purification plants", he said.
Nuri Uslu, president of Parliament’s research commission for environmental problems, said they were practicing onsite observations in states with environmental problems and that Muğla was a very important and delicate city for tourism. Uslu also said the global financial crisis affected Turkey as well. "I care about Muğla a lot. After the last river drys up and the last fish dies, our money will worthless so we must preserve the environment and nature." Uslu reminded people not to litter forests or pollute rivers and the sea.
"The correspondences between us and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources on closing the mine in Osmaniye Village and the revocation of their license brought us to a very interesting point," said Bayındır. "When we asked the ministry how many companies had demanded licenses to mine in the area, we faced the number of 41".
Bayındır said it was a frightening image when looked on a map because there was a chance 52 percent of Marmaris would be turned into a molehill. There are 24 companies from Muğla; 10 from Istanbul, five from Ankara and one each from Adana and Bursa that received licenses for mining, according to Bayındır.
One of the firms from Istanbul has licenses for seven different locations and the mine at Osmaniye has 15 different licenses, Bayındır said. "This has become a national problem. If this many locations may have active licenses at a tourist area like Marmaris; you think about the rest". Bayındır claimed these licenses would be an excuse to chop down forests in order to open roads and said they did not even want to think of what would happen next.
Mehmet Şahin, Muğla provincial director of the environment and forestry, said the biggest environmental problems in Muğla were fish farms and the thermal power plant in Yatağan. "All municipalities must build purification plants", he said.
Nuri Uslu, president of Parliament’s research commission for environmental problems, said they were practicing onsite observations in states with environmental problems and that Muğla was a very important and delicate city for tourism. Uslu also said the global financial crisis affected Turkey as well. "I care about Muğla a lot. After the last river drys up and the last fish dies, our money will worthless so we must preserve the environment and nature." Uslu reminded people not to litter forests or pollute rivers and the sea.