ISTANBUL, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Turkey has signed a cooperation agreement with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) that will support environmental investments, urban infrastructure and climate change efforts, Environment Minister Murat Kurum said on Friday.
Kurum said the first phase of the agreement would focus on environmental projects in the Marmara region through an investment package worth around €400 million ($465 million).
“We aim to provide significant support for the cleaning of the Marmara Sea and our fight against sea snot through an investment package worth approximately €400 million, primarily for advanced biological wastewater treatment facilities,” Kurum said.
He did not give details of any further phases of the cooperation agreement, nor how much the total investment could amount to.
Turkey in the past faced a plague of “sea snot,” a thick slimy layer of organic matter known as marine mucilage, in the Sea of Marmara, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry. The inner Sea of Marmara, which connects the Black Sea through the Bosporus to the Aegean Sea through the Dardanelles, lies in the middle of the most industrialised region of Turkey.
Kurum said increasing wastewater treatment capacity, expanding advanced biological treatment facilities and strengthening environmental infrastructure were among the main efforts of Turkey’s attempts to address pollution in the sea.
Kurum and AIIB Vice President Ajay Bhushan Pandey signed the cooperation agreement on the sidelines of the Climate Finance Summit in Istanbul organised ahead of the COP31 U.N. climate conference in November.
Turkey is one of the AIIB’s largest investment destinations, Pandey noted.
($1 = 0.8606 euros)
(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun, Writing by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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