TURKEYANATOLIA WATERSHED

REHABILITATION PROJECT

Sedat Kadioglu

Ministry of Environment

Abdulmecit Yesil

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs

 

 

• PROJECT TITLE : Anatolia Watershed Rehabilitation Project 

• PROJECT BENEFICIARIES : • Ministry of Environment Ministry of Environment ,,

Ministry of Ministry of Forestry, Ministry Forestry, Ministry of of Agriculture and Rural Agriculture and Rural AffairsAffairs and General Directrate and General Directrate of Rural Servicesof Rural Services  

• PROJECT DURATION : 7 Years

• ( starting in 2003)

• THE PROJECT BUDGET

The total cost of the project is around 50.000.000 US Dollars. 6.000.000 US Dollars of this amount is provided by the GEF and the major portion is provided by the World Bank. The fund to be used for the rehabilitation works is a loan and the fund to be used for the pollution reduction works is a donation.

PROJECT AREA

•   The project will be carried out at totally 5 basins and 13 provinces. ( Seyhan, Ceyhan, Göksu, Kızılırmak, and Yeşilırmak). Only rehabilitation works will be performed at Seyhan, Ceyhan and Göksu Basins while both rehabilitation and the GEF related pollution decrease works will be performed at Kızılırmak and Yeşilırmak Basins.

  4 provinces have been selected for the GEF. The provinces of Amasya , Çorum and Tokat are at Yeşilırmak Basin and Samsun is at Kızılırmak Basin.

River basins in Turkey

 

Rehabilitation works are being executed by the Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (TUGEM) and General Directorate Of Rural Services. Financing of the works regarding this step of the project will be covered by the World Bank loan. Reduction works of the pollution arising from agriculture in the Black Sea will be performed by the donation to be granted by the GEF.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT

The total area of the 13 provinces is about 19 million ha (24% of the country total). It is estimated that in these provinces, 70 MCs will cover an area of about 650,000 ha out of which 250,000 ha will be the physical implementation area. Erosion (both sheet and gully) in forest, range and agricultural land, land degradation and soil and water pollution are important problems in the project area

A baseline survey conducted in early 2002 in these watersheds indicated that 34% of the livestock producers leave the wastes on open fields as manure, 22% dump the wastes into the streams, and 11% leave it outside of the house. In 77% of the households, the distance between the dwellings and the dump area varies between 2-100 meters. Some 34% of the households have their water resources located at a distance of 0-10 meters to livestock shelter.

The majority of the large livestock owners are not using the wastes as manure, but they are giving it free, in case of demand. Therefore, these wastes are mostly dumped in open areas, streams, and fields without any treatment. About half of the respondents have feverish diseases which is followed by goiter and diarrhea. On the other hand, waste water from agro-processing plants, i.e. sugar factory, paper mills, are discharged into streams without any treatment. Some factories have some primitive treatment facilities but either these are not operated, or if operated are not efficiently done so.

Additionally, Agricultural pollution is a serious problem. Concentrated poultry production in Çorum and beef fattening and dairy production in Amasya, Tokat and Bafra together with over-use of inorganic fertilizers are polluting the surface and ground waters, causing disease problems, unbearable odor, and visual pollution. Wells in the residential areas are susceptible to seepages threatening the public health. Untreated waste water from agro-processing plants is discharged into the streams, ultimately entering the Black Sea. Proper fertilizer use is another issue. Some efforts have been made to introduce soil analysis for better fertilizer application, but the impact is limited.

The Black Sea Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis identified nutrient pollution as the most serious problem that has lead to the ecological breakdown experienced in the Black Sea over the past few decades. The GEF Strategic Partnership was established in 2001 in order to encourage public and private sector investments in nutrient reduction, notably industrial and urban wastewater treatment, agricultural nutrient pollution control and wetland restoration in the Black Sea and Danube Basin.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

• The overall objective of the project is to reduce the discharges of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), and other agricultural pollution into the Yeşilırmak and Kızılırmak Rivers. The project will be implemented in the micro catchments that are in the provinces of Amasya , Çorum, Tokat and Samsun

PROJECT GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL

OBJECTIVES • The project will fully integrate

environmental concerns into agricultural practices to make them more sustainable, including the storage, management and application of manure and ensure ecologically sustainable use of natural resources to reduce the discharge of the nutrient load into the Turkish ground and surface waters as well as into the Black Sea.

• The project will also promote appropriate policies and policy reforms in order to create an enabling environment for realizing the project objectives. It will develop capacity of private small holders and commercial farmers to use environment- friendly agricultural practices and resource management.

NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

In order to meet food production for increasing population requirements, increasing agricultural export, and to meet raw materials requirements for industry, agricultural production should be increased. But while aiming to increase agricultural production, natural sources such as soil and water which are main inputs of agriculture, should be protected.

 

Because of the different altitudes of our country, there are different climatic conditions. As the great mountain ranges are placed on the Black Sea and Mediterranean coasts, most of the rest of the country has a semi-dry climate with low precipitation. In almost all of the country there is drought and need to the water in summer times. Topography and climate specifications caused the use of different nutrients as fertilizers. One of the most important inputs for increasing agricultural production is nutrients as chemical and organic fertilizers.

In order to benefit from utilization of fertilizers at the utmost level, they have to be applied at the most suitable times and appropriately to the land. For this purpose, soil analysis will show us which nutrients have to be applied to the land for productivity.  The objective of the GEF Project, that is still at the preparation stage and will begin in the year 2003, is the reduction of nutrients into Black Sea. In the determined micro-catchments and selected provinces, vegetal and livestock activities are very intensive.

 • Solid and liquid wastes coming from beef, dairy and poultry production enterprises are polluting the ground and surface waters, and these circumstances are threatening human and environmental health and also causing pollution in the Black Sea.

• This project’s objective is also the reduction of pollution by using chemical fertilizers based on soil testing

Vegetable production will be naturalized by using manures for vegetable production and demand for chemical fertilizers will be reduced. Within that scope, measures will be taken for the liquid and solid waste contaminants to the surface and ground waters in the determined micro-catchments and they will be collected. Manures will be used in vegetable production lands and range lands as organic fertilizers.

With that purpose, establishing a system for creating supply – demand balance between vegetable producers and livestock producers, causing farmers to try to use fertilizers consciously based on good agricultural practices and soil analysis by leading farmers, training of farmers by local agricultural agencies, awareness of the local population, and monitoring of the surface and ground waters for observing the results of these activities, and replication of these activities at national at regional levels

is the objective.

• Nutrient reduction:

The Project will reduce, over the long-term, the discharge of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and other agricultural pollutants into the surface and ground waters of Turkey and the Black Sea through integrated land and water management and promote ecologically sustainable use of natural resources.

This component is being prepared under the umbrella of the Black Sea/Danube Strategic Partnership-Nutrient Reduction Investment Fund under which riparian countries would be eligible for Global Environment Facility (GEF) funding for projects that would control or mitigate nutrient inflow to the Black Sea. The Project activities are directly linked to "Strategic Action Plan for the Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black Sea" (BSSAP), formulated with the assistance of the GEF.

• Within the framework of the project, the following steps will be taken :

a) strengthening national policy and local regulatory capacity to meet European Union (EU) standards for agricultural nutrient pollution control,

b) increasing the use of environmentally friendly agricultural practices and thereby reducing nutrient discharge particularly from agricultural sources to the Black Sea,

c) capacity building and promoting a broad public awareness program and replication strategy.

Global Operational Strategy/Program objective addressed by the Project: The Project will implement priority actions identified in the Black Sea Strategic Action Plan. The Project will provide an opportunity for the GEF to be a catalyst for the actions to bring about the successful integration of improved land and water resource management practices. The GEF support will reduce costs and barriers to farmers, adopting improved and sustainable agricultural practices. It will help develop mechanisms to move from demonstration level activities to operational projects that reduce non-point source agricultural pollution to Black Sea.

THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT : 1) Manure management system and pollution from Agro-Industry

2 ) Water and Soil Quality Monitoring Program

3) National Level Strenthening Policy &Regulatory Capacity Building

4) Public Awareness  

Manure Management • The project will initially fund pilot

actions to test the options for improving the storage and handling of livestock waste. Following a review of the different livestock husbandry practices in the project provinces, three types of enterprises were selected for the pilot activities: i) commercial beef and dairy farms in peri-urban areas that are frequently discharging solid and liquid wastes directly into the water body; ii) small livestock farms in the MC areas; and iii) poultry units (each with about 45,000 birds) in the Corum area where there is a high concentration of poultry production.

• In the case of the peri-urban cattle farmers and the small livestock farms in the MCs, the project will provide funds for construction of on-farm and central storage as well as equipment for waste collection and application to agricultural land. The arrangements for the organization and management of the investment and implementation phases, as well as the participation of the local administrations and beneficiaries, still have to be worked out in the course of further project preparation. With regard to the poultry units, primarily technical assistance will be provided for enforcing compliance with existing legislation and to develop a more efficient system for handling the collection and utilization of poultry manure.

• MARA’s and MOE’s staff, visited the sites selected for manure management pilot activities at: (a) Turhal - beef feed-lots on the Dazya Stream that drains into the Yesilirmak, Tokat Province; (b) Suluova - beef feed lots on the Tersakan Stream, draining into the Yesilirmak, Amasya Province; and (c) Bafra - small farmer milk and beef production in Ilyasu MC on the Ilyasu Stream draining into the Kizilirmak, Samsun Province (d) Chicken units lots on the Derinçay Stream draining into the Yeşilırmak , Çorum Province.

While the Turhal and Bafra sites were found to justify further investigation, the Suluova area was subject to serious pollution from household wastes, as well as from agro-industry and it would be difficult to measure the impact of project actions on nutrient discharge. Therefore Suluova was excluded from the project. Instead of Suluova, a new area will be determined.

Three pilot manure management facilities will be implemented in the first eighteen months of the project. At the same time the public awareness activities will be launched to sensitize the rural population to need to improve the handling of livestock waste. Following the evaluation of the impact of the pilot facilities against environmental, economic and social criteria, the project actions will be extended to other sites in the project years 3 - 6. The Regional Environmental Assessment will be done for the liquid and solid manure storage structures. 

Use of the field demonstration program will be realized in order to show the importance of organic manures and to improve good relations between the livestock producers who are without land for cultivation, and the arable farmers, horticulturists, orchard owners and rangeland users who are the potential market for organic manure

Fertilizer Use in the Project Provinces

Although some efforts have been made to introduce soil analysis for better fertilizer application, the impact is limited. The “annual provincial extension programs” include nutrient management but due to problems regarding resource allocation, the effectiveness of these efforts are questionable. Therefore, inorganic fertilizer application is another source of non-point pollution in Kizilirmak and Yesilirmak watersheds. A baseline survey conducted in early 2002 in these watersheds indicated that only 15% of the farmers follows the advice given by the extension staff, traditional practices and “learning from the neighbor” is still dominant.

Around 17 % of the farmers who produce cash crops and own medium sized land made their soils analyzed. There is no such practice among small farmers producing cereals. The data indicated that about 33% of the farmers who had their soils analyzed were applying high amounts and in turn reduced the fertilizer rates. Introduction of improved storage and application of livestock wastes together with nutrient management programs should have a significant impact on reducing nutrient discharge into the water body.

Soil and water quality monitoring:

The project will provide for the incremental equipment, staff training and operating costs for monitoring the impact of environment-friendly practices on the discharge of nutrients (N & P) into the water body. Measurements of BOD and suspended solids will also be made. MARA will be responsible for monitoring at the level of the MC, while MOE will be responsible for monitoring water quality upstream and downstream in the main river. The central MOE laboratory in Ankara will be used to calibrate samples taken by MARA.

In the micro catchments soil and water quality monitoring points have been selected, sampling procedures have been prepared, organizational arrangements with responsibilities of MOE and MARA have been agreed upon and investment and operational costs have been prepared.

 National Level Strenthening of Policy

&Regulatory Capacity:

• Ministry of Environment (MOE) and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Services (MARA) prepared their initial review of the status of environmental legislation covering, the Nitrate Directive legislation and certification standards for organic farming. The GEF funding could support work on application of the Nitrates Directive, the development of a Code of Good Agricultural Practices and measures required to promote the development of Organic Farming. With regard to Integrated Pest Management, this would be covered by the World Bank funding.

Within the framework of the project, the Turkish Nitrate Directive which is the equivalent of the EU Nitrate Directive (91/676/EEC) will be constituted. The Nitrates Directive adoption studies have been carried out by MOE and MARA. It is aimed that these studies will be completed by the end of 2002.

Public Awareness and Replication Strategy

The program related to Public Awareness has been prepared by the authorities of MOE , MARA and the World Bank. Public awareness, capacity building and replication strategy activities will be conducted in all provinces covered by the project. Public awareness program will be applied at the local, national and international levels.

 

At the local level (Amasya, Çorum,Tokat and Samsun ), the following works will be carried out:

(a) Villages will be visited in selected micro-catchments to find out about the level of public awareness, the interest and need for better knowledge of environmental matters and the issues it deals with.

 (b) Appropriate structures and instruments will be designed for the campaign ( Radio, TV, Publications) and the cost for each instrument will be determined.

 (c) The scope and specific objectives for each step will be defined in the campaign.

 (d) Proposals will be presented to local communities to test their receptivity to the approach and the instrument proposed .

 

 e) Environment-friendly agricultural and manure management practices will be adopted.  (f) Environmental awareness will be increased through enhanced school and NGO’s participation.  (g) The problems caused by pollution and waste disposal will be explained.

At the national level the following works will be carried out:

 

(a) The experiences gained at the local level will be reflected on the national level.

 (b) A broad nationwide public information campaign will be undertaken to disseminate the benefits of proposed project activities.

 (c) Efforts will be concentrated on institutions and groups that may influence the replication of the project in other areas.

 (d) A national media campaign will be launched to introduce the project to the people better .

 (e) The problems caused by pollution and waste disposal will be explained .

At the international level the following works will be carried out :

• The project will provide for the organization of regional workshops, field trips, training, publication in international agriculture and environment journals and other activities to promote replication of project activities in other Black Sea riparian countries. The pilot activity will aim to serve as a model to be replicated in these countries which will help contribute to significant reductions in the nutrient loads entering the Black Sea.

 

ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES FOR

AGENCIES

At the central level, there are three units i) Project Management Group (PMG), ii) Central Coordination Unit (CCU), and iii) Project Management Units (PMUs). At the field level (provincial) there are two units i) Local Project Management Teams (LPMT) ii) Micro Catchment Implemantation Teams (MCIT)