Completion of Golden Horn environmental protection project celebrated

The completion of the Golden Horn (Halic) Environmental Protection Project was celebrated on Sunday with a ceremony which was attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Forestry and Water Works Minister Veysel Eroglu, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Governor Avni Mutlu and Mayor Kadir Topbas, deputies and a large crowd of people. Speaking at the ceremony, Erdogan said the Golden Horn project, which was begun in 1995 while he was the Istanbul metropolitan mayor, had increased the biological diversity in the Golden Horn. "The number of fish species living in the Golden Horn is now 48 after we cleaned the sea floor. This project we are launching today aims to prevent any future contamination of the Golden Horn by enabling water circulation so that we ensure the Golden Horn waters keep circulating throughout the year even when there is no rainfall," Erdogan said. A five-kilometer tunnel was built between Ayazaga and Sariyer Cayirbasi for the project. Sea water will be pumped from Ayazaga River at a depth of 21 meters and the waters of the Golden Horn will be renewed three times within a year. A total of $758 million has been spent on the project thus far.