Turkey’s most populated city Istanbul also has its fair share of pollution due to the high population density crammed into a relatively small province divided by the sea. It saw the consequences of pollution in notorious sea snot blanketing the Marmara Sea and now alarm bells are ringing for the city’s creeks.

The city is home to some 67 creeks, some dried up a long time ago with only a thin flow of water while others, particularly those in rural areas still have boisterous waters. Creeks nowadays are badly in need of a cleanse as they emit a strong stench and often change color due to heavy pollution. Dirty creeks in need of immediate intervention include Menekşe straddling Küçükçekmece district, Haramidere in Esenyurt, Ayamama in Bakırköy, Kolağası, Ayazağa, Tarabya and İstinye in Sarıyer on the European side, Dragos in Maltepe, Bekar in Üsküdar on the Asian side. Banks of all creeks are housing residential areas or industrial sites, contributing to their pollution.

Not cleaned for a long time, creeks where sewage and wastewater flow remain a major public health threat. They can potentially trigger epidemic diseases by serving as a breeding ground for mosquitos and harmful insects. But people living on the banks of the creek claim no authority yet took action for the rehabilitation of creeks.

In Menekşe creek, waters turned brown and mosses are prevalent in some spots as the pollution takes hold of the creek flowing into the Marmara Sea. The narrow creek connecting Lake Küçükçekmece to the Marmara is a parking spot for dozens of excursion and fishing boats, but a dark shade of brown spoils the beauty of the otherwise pristine creek, along with the stench it emits. Near the Mimar Sinan Bridge, a historic bridge at the mouth of the creek, the water’s color turns red, further worrying locals. The exact cause of this changing color is not known but it is most likely the result of pollution from nearby factories according to locals. Though Menekşe flows into the Marmara Sea, tides push back pollution from the sea into the creek. Cleaning work is currently underway in the creek.

The same fate befell Tarabya Creek, which flows into the Bosporus from its source at the eponymous neighborhood in the Sarıyer district. Water levels are at an all-time low and in some spots, the creek is entirely dried. What little water it has is heavily polluted. Locals complain that no one was taking responsibility for rehabilitating the creek, with Sarıyer municipality and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) passing the buck for cleaning work. "My late father-in-law used to tell me how he performed ablution here and people were drinking water from the creek once," Mehmet Ekinci, a local living on the banks of the creek, said. "Now there is nothing but muddy water," he lamented.

Dragos in Maltepe, a creek flowing into the Marmara Sea is no different. Costa Halamidis, who lives near the creek, said all the untreated waste goes into the sea from the creek, especially in times of strong winds. "There used to be small boats here but when it became more polluted, owners had to remove them," Halamidis says. He blames residential buildings whose sewage systems are linked to the creek. "You cannot walk around here without covering your nose. It stinks and looks ugly. It has all kinds of bacteria and the pollution from the creek also kills the fish in the Marmara Sea," he said.

Kolağası Creek suffers from the same problem of buildings emptying their sewage. Garbage dumped into the creek adds to the woes of the body of water turned into grey. Serkan Gerçek mukhtar or headman of Rumeli Feneri neighborhood where the creek flows through before ending up in the Black Sea, said it poses a direct threat to their neighborhood, with mosquitos coming into their homes, causing diseases.

Along with waste from residential buildings, industrial waste is a dire threat to creeks, as is the case in Haramidere, a creek located next to an industrial site in Esenyurt. Canals emptying into the creeks makes the situation worse, creating "bubbles" in the water which worries locals. The creek has made the headlines last year for almost daily changes in its color and the situation still continues, although sporadically. An accompanying stench rising from the creek where paint and plastic factories are located on its banks, along with a large slaughterhouse, makes life unbearable for residents of Esenyurt living on the banks.

Though occasional cleaning work restores the creeks to their former state, although briefly, the future of creeks remains uncertain. Experts say the establishment of protective strips, a buffer zone, on their banks are required to prevent pollution but this appears very difficult as the creeks are now in the middle of heavily populated areas. Legacy of a migration boom in the past decades and haphazard construction practices (often in the form of "gecekondu," illegally built houses) prevents more physical intervention like the construction of protective strips as the cost is high to remove residential areas near the creek.

Creeks are usually filled with rainwater, the situation becomes worse in the summer as they are entirely or mostly dried up and used by an informal garbage dumping area by some locals. Such dried creeks, especially those in areas far from suburbs, are also used as dumping ground illegally by trucks carrying waste from construction sites.

Istanbul Water and Sewage Administration (ISKİ) says since June 2019, they have undertaken rehabilitation work at 69 creeks and rehabilitated an area with a total size of 36 kilometers (22.3 miles). The agency, a subsidiary of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), said in a written statement last week that the problems the creeks face are "chronic" and have been prevalent for years. "ISKİ exerts care for rehabilitation and cleaning of the creeks as part of municipality's Green Solutions vision. Since June 2019, an area measuring 871 kilometers was cleaned up. About 2 million cubic meters of solid waste was removed from the creeks during this cleaning work," the statement said. ISKİ, on the other hand, urged locals to keep the creek beds clean.