A project for removing and cleaning the bottom mud from the Gulf of Izmit via a partnership of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality was announced Tuesday, according to the municipality's statement.

The project, named "Cleaning, Dewatering and Disposal Service of Izmit Gulf's East Basin Bottom Sludge," has a budget that was approved by the Presidency's Strategy and Budget Department. It aims to protect the environmental integrity and solve the environmental problems ​​of the Gulf of Izmit, located in the Marmara Sea and to clean the bottom mud in its eastern basin.

In the first stage, the bottom sludge, which is located in an area of ​​ 1.22 million square meters (1.29 million square feet), will be transported to a storage area after being converted into approximately 1.1 million cubic meters of dry sludge through processes of dredging and drying.

In line with the project, work in the field has started. At the same time, the second coordination and evaluation meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality's Department of Environmental Protection and Control and Department of Science, the General Directorate of Conservation of Natural Assets, the Department of Investment and Projects, the Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change as well as project consultant officials from Istanbul University.

Before the meeting, the delegation examined the storage areas with Mesut Önem, head of the Metropolitan Municipality Environmental Protection and Control Department.

As part of the fieldwork, construction sites are still being set up in the coastal area behind the former International Fair Center.

On the other hand, studies initiated by Kocaeli Municipality on the bottom mud that has accumulated in the eastern basin of the Gulf of Izmit have been conducted by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK), the Marmara Research Center (MAM) and Istanbul University. Likewise, studies on currents, surface water and human activities around the basin were also conducted.

According to the research, the bottom mud causes odor and turbidity, especially in meteorological events such as southwester, by reducing water circulation, and also triggers biological events (algal blooms) and creates adverse environmental conditions for the marine ecosystem by consuming dissolved oxygen. Furthermore, it was revealed that it also started the formation of mucilage in the ​Marmara Sea, which adversely affected the entire ecosystem.