Malatya, which suffered great destruction in the earthquakes on February 6, 2023, centered in Kahramanmaraş, is preparing for the future in line with the understanding of environmentally friendly urbanism with investments in renewable energy sources and wastewater recycling facilities during the reconstruction process.
While residences and workplaces are being built in the city to replace the buildings destroyed in the earthquake, investments are also continuing in the fields of transportation, infrastructure, industry, health, education, sports and social facilities.
In this context, wastewater treatment facilities and solar and hydroelectric energy projects are being implemented in order to meet the needs of new settlement areas and to use natural resources efficiently.
İkizce Sewage Collector Line and Duranlar Advanced Biological Treatment Facility were established in Yeşilyurt district in order to re-evaluate the wastewater of 27 thousand 615 residences and over 600 workplaces built in İkizce Earthquake Residences Region, which is described as the largest construction site in Türkiye.
Wastewater from residences and workplaces in İkizce will be delivered to the facility through a line of approximately 30 kilometers.
While the wastewater to be processed in the facility, which has a daily purification capacity of 28 thousand cubic meters, is planned to be used in agricultural irrigation, the aim is to dry the sludge generated during the purification process and bring it to the industrial sector.
Malatya Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Sami Er told the AA correspondent that wastewater in Malatya will be completely discharged and that they will meet their own needs thanks to the established Hydroelectric Power Plant and Solar Power Plant.
Explaining that they aim to convert fuel-powered public transportation vehicles in the city to electric public transportation vehicles, Er said:
"Currently, Malatya's infrastructure is being completely changed with a work of 35 billion lira. We do not just change this infrastructure by changing the facilities. We solve it by building an extremely modern facility. Malatya has a very valuable water. It has drinking water with a flow rate of 3,500 liters per second. We have developed new systems to use our drinking water more effectively. By building a 20 thousand cubic meter tank in Konak, we ensure that it reaches our people more easily."
Mayor Er stated that they are carrying out important work in the İkizce region, where they expect a population of approximately 200 thousand to live.
Stating that they consider everything from electrical infrastructure to waste water in the region, Er continued:
"Ikizce is currently the largest construction site in Türkiye. Approximately 28 thousand houses have been built in this area. We think that 200 thousand people will live there. Our university and the Organized Industrial Zone are there. We carried the wastewater here for 30 kilometers and built the Duranlar Advanced Biological Treatment Facility. The cost of this is 2.2 billion liras. We built an extremely modern facility. We have a daily capacity of 28 thousand cubic meters. The wastewater here is treated in the second unit and used for agricultural irrigation. "We also build a sludge drying unit here. We clean the sludge here and bring it into the economy. We will give this to the industrial sector."
Mayor Er stated that they aim to become a municipality that meets its own electricity needs with solar power plants and hydropower plants installed in many parts of the city.
Explaining that the work is continuing, Er said:
"Renewable energy is a popular issue. We have a 14 megawatt energy production in Malatya. We applied for a capacity increase. In our meeting with our Minister of Energy, we received the good news of a 44 megawatt solar power plant capacity increase. We are researching the resource. Our aim here is to reset energy costs. We will do this by producing our own energy. It will be an energy that will eliminate the other costs of the municipality. We foresee green transportation in Malatya. We will convert all our buses to electric. "We are trying to evaluate the public transportation vehicles in the city in this category. As the Metropolitan Municipality, we will cover the electricity costs in all our services. We aim to reduce the energy cost to zero. We will produce our own energy in water supply lines, treatment systems, parks, gardens and facilities and reduce the cost to zero."
