Nearly 20,000 tonnes of raw sewage spilled into the waters of Bodrum, one of Europe’s most popular seaside resorts, after the town’s sewer system broke down, NTV television reported Wednesday.
“We were forced to pump waste into the sea for a while,” the Aegean town’s Mayor Mazlum Agan said. “If we hadn’t, the sewage would have gushed out of houses — there was no other alternative.”
Some residents complained to the media that the ageing sewage system collapsed Saturday night, but no action was taken until Monday.
Bodrum, a picturesque town on Turkey’s southwestern coast close to the Greek islands of Cos and Rhodes, is the ancient Halicarnassus and was the site of the original Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Residents have long complained that the town and its environs, highly popular with Turkish and foreign tourists, has been overbuilt over the past couple of decades with insufficient attention paid to infrastructure.
Source: Agence France-Presse
