Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç Soyer introduced the Sponge City Izmir project, which will expand the rainwater harvesting efforts shaped by the vision of combating drought. Minister Tunç SoyerReminding that citizens can also participate in the rain water tanks and rain garden application, “Come, let's do the Sponge City project together. Let's build the future of Izmir together," he said.
Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç SoyerThe introductory meeting of the Sponge City Izmir project, implemented with the vision of "Another Water Management is Possible", was held at the Historical Coal Gas Factory Youth Campus. With the project, which will be a first in Turkey, the rain water falling on the streets, streets and roads of the city will be stored underground with scientific applications. The project that will make it possible to harvest, collect, clean and reuse the rain water falling on the roofs. Tunç Soyer introduced to the public.
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor attended the meeting where the project based on the most comprehensive rain water harvesting and green transformation in Turkey was explained. Tunç SoyerNeptün Soyer, wife of Koop and Head of the Village-Koop Izmir Union, Mayor of Konak Abdul Batur, Karşıyaka Mayor Cemil Tugay, Güzelbahçe Mayor Mustafa İnce, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality bureaucrats, headmen, apartment and site managers, property owners, representatives of public and private schools attended.
“The only way to improve our world is through cities”
President speaking about the project that will make İzmir the first sponge city of Turkey Tunç Soyer, mentioning the examples of true and false urbanization, “Cities produce food, electricity, goods and raw materials for themselves by using the life energy on our planet. In return, it only gives plastic waste, carbon dioxide, war and poverty. “We have known for a long time that this destructive relationship between cities and ecosystems is unsustainable.”
Stating that they have taken very serious steps for three years to eliminate this destructive relationship in İzmir, Mayor Soyer said, “The only way to improve our world is through cities. The urban population rate has exceeded 55 percent as of today, and it is expected to reach 2050 percent in 68. In other words, we see very clearly that the world of the future will be the world of cities. That's why we have to find solutions in cities for whatever problem we have about living on this planet. There is only one way to achieve this. Making cities part of nature's cycles. If we are sincere about maintaining our existence in this world, we have to believe that another urbanism is possible and take bold and determined steps in this direction. That's what we're trying to do in Izmir," he said.
“We are starting a brand new era that we can call a revolution”
Reminding that they organized the “Sustainable Water Policies in Cities Summit” with 11 Metropolitan Mayors about two years ago, Mayor Soyer continued his words as follows; “At this summit, we said 'Another Water Management is Possible' with our mayors of 11 provinces, 22 of which are metropolitan, and we published a manifesto regarding this. One of the five core principles of the text was the statement 'We will protect nature's water cycle'. Unfortunately, for more than 60 years in our cities, the water cycle of nature has been destroyed without any consideration of its consequences. Due to the concrete-oriented growth, water-proof hard surfaces are everywhere. An artificial crust has been laid between the soil and the water. In order to evacuate the water that cannot infiltrate underground and therefore flows freely in the city, it was desired to construct very high cost rainwater channels. However, due to economic reasons, this process could not be completed in many cities such as İzmir. When the climate crisis is added to the wrong construction, the problem we face has grown more and more every day. That's why we witness the destructive power of water more often in the world and in Izmir. In February 2019 and 2021, we experienced floods and floods at 3 points. Since 600, we have been investing heavily to complete our city's storm water channel infrastructure to prevent floods and overflows and at the same time clean the Izmir Bay. Today, we are starting a brand new era that we can call a revolution in rainwater management. That's why we're so excited. We will realize this transformation with our Sponge City Izmir project, which aims at sustainable stormwater management.”
“Our goal is to make İzmir a sponge city within 5 years”
Stating that they will break the concrete shell laid on İzmir in places and ensure that water meets the soil again, Mayor Soyer said that they established the Water Resources Research and Application Center one and a half years ago in order to plan the Sponge City İzmir project and create the technical infrastructure. Emphasizing that this unit, which consists of many different experts to implement Turkey's first Sponge City management model, has created a program specific to Izmir with a work that lasted for one and a half years, Mayor Soyer said, “Within the scope of this program, Turkey's first sponge city regulation was passed from our Metropolitan Municipality council in October. We spent the month. Our friends also prepared a comprehensive technical application guide in order to popularize the sponge city practices in the city. We will share this with our districts and make it possible for our districts to implement similar practices. On the other hand, we are about to finalize the sponge city concept planning studies of Bostanlı and Poligon creeks with the academicians of İzmir Institute of Technology and the Dutch company HNS. Our goal is to turn İzmir into a sponge city within five years. In this way, we aim to reduce the flow of rain water in the city by 70 percent in five years.”
“We will gift 5 rainwater tanks to 5 buildings"
Stating that one of the most important features of the Sponge City Izmir project is the participation of all citizens living in Izmir, Mayor Soyer said, “We will carry out two comprehensive implementations of our project together with our citizens. The first of these is rain water harvesting… We will evaluate the rain falling in our city and return it to the natural water cycle. By implementing an incentive system for rainwater harvesting, we will donate 5 rainwater tanks to 5 buildings. We are launching this application right now as of today. The amount of water falling on the roofs of our city is more than the water accumulated in Tahtalı Dam, our biggest drinking water source, every year. In other words, the rain that falls on our city, unfortunately, is wasted, polluted, and causes floods and floods. With five thousand rainwater tanks, we will save water and contribute to the cleaning of the gulf, and at the same time we will support the prevention of floods and floods.
10 rain garden campaign begins
President Soyer emphasized that the second work is the “10 thousand rain gardens for İzmir” campaign and said, “We will give the plants to be planted in the rain garden to be built by 10 thousand citizens who will apply for rain gardens. We are launching this application as of today. With each rain garden we will create in İzmir, we will prevent the rain water that falls on our streets, our streets and goes to our sewer system, we will protect it from floods, we will clean our water and thus we will bring it back to nature. Apart from these two applications, we will implement many pilot projects in urban and rural areas, step by step, with Sponge Kent İzmir. İzmir will have a blue and green infrastructure. Water will flow to the streets, roofs and gardens of İzmir to meet the soil again," he said.
“Everybody is a guide to Turkey”
Stating that each of these projects is a guide for Turkey, President Soyer concluded his words as follows: “It is clear that our individual efforts to solve global crises will not work alone. The harmony between our actions is as important as the harmony of our cities with nature. That's why I invite all Izmir residents to join our Sponge City project. Let's make the Sponge City Project together with rain water tanks and rain garden applications. Let's build the future of Izmir together. Let's fight drought and floods together."
Izmir-specific modeling
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Advisor and geological engineer Alim Murathan gave technical information about the project. Stating that a model specific to İzmir was made with the Sponge City project, Alim Murathan explained what to do to prevent raids and floods.
Applications started
With this study, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality decided to support houses and workplaces that will collect rain water. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality will provide rain water tanks for the first 5 thousand buildings for system installation as an incentive. People of Izmir who want to be included in the system here can apply.
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