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Three Geographies, three Pollutions
From Denmark, Greece, Turkey
April 2003

Our planet is called the Water Planet. 71% of the Earth is covered by water. Water constitutes the main component for all the organisms on our planet and it acts a principal role to the formation of the earth surface and development, to the regulation of the climate, to the dissolution of pollution and it is a presupposition for agriculture, industry, transport and generally for all the human activities. The water is absolutely connected with the human existence.

Apart from the sea, rivers play an important role to our life, to the commercial and transport development, to the development of fishing industry, to the development of tourism, entertainment and culture

Here are three pollutions from three different geograpies.
The Olynthios brook in Halkidiki - Greece
The Sonderkaer brook in Danmark
The Golden Horn in Istanbul - Turkey

The Olynthios brook in Halkidiki - Greece

Olynthios river is well known from ancient times under the name of Sardanos or Sardan. According to the historian Klisthenis, it is in this place that the King of Macedonia, Philippos, camped his army in 348 B.C. in order to destroy the ancient town of Olynthos. And it is in that battle that King Philippos lost one of his eyes by the arrow of Olynthos Astir. Nowadays, there is a small village under the same name and the remains of the archeological site close to the village.

The Olynthios river has its springs at the western part of the mountain Holomondas in Halkidiki, it crosses different small villages and it is also joined by other small brooks. Olynthios river starts from the village of Vavdos, which is almost in the middle of the mountain Holomondas. The length of the river is 28 klm. from which 4 klm run in our area and it outfalls into the Toroneos golf, very close to the wetland of Agios Mamas. The width of the brook varies according to the region and the season. It ranges from one meter to 30 meters wide. The depth may reach the two meters especially in winter. In some places there are big holes which reach the five meters because of sand reception.
Around the river and the brooks, people cultivate olive trees, tomatoes, vineyards and some cherries. A lot of different kinds of plants, birds, animals and wildlife can be found along the banks of the brook. In the past there were a lot of cattle especially sheep and goats. Also, women used to wash the rugs and the clothes.
Litter : There is a lot of litter along the banks of the brook : plastic bags, plastic chairs, tins, useless wheels, paper boxes, earth and debris from the new built houses and thousands of other kinds of litter. There are also rotted branches from the pruning of the trees.

Pollution : In some places of the brook the water is foaming, green and filthy due to the fertilizers and urban waste. Three settlements in the surrounding area, which have a draining net, throw their sewages into the brook. Three more settlements, use pelvises for their sewages, which sometimes break and the sewages are thrown into the brook. In addition, during spring and summer the water in the brook, especially close to the sea, is very little. As a result, all the above sewage, litter and rubbish pollute the surface water of the brook and this influences the marine life, the plants and the animals which survive in the surrounding area. This is a very serious parameter because two villages are irrigated from drilling and very often the drinkable water is polluted.

Sand reception : At the decade 1960 - 1969 there was a great road construction in the area. The Prefectury of Halkidiki permitted the sand reception of the river in order to deepen it and avoid the floods in the area. But in the same time the flowing gand the character of the brook has changed dramatically.
Water drilling : Farmers use drilling to water their farms. Every year they drill deeper and deeper and as result the water deposits are becoming less and less. On the other have a quantity of water is lost at the bottom of the river.

Fertilizers : Farmers also use a lot of fertilizers in their farms which pollute the water of the
brook. Unfortunately they also throw the boxes, tins and bottles close to the river and as result the remainders are washed by the water of the river.

Hunting : There are a lot of cartridges along the banks of the brook which means that there is an excessive activity of hunting in the region which troubles the balance of life in the water and on earth.

We sent a sample of water for examination and it was found polluted. Not as much as we expected. During winter the pollution is limited but during summer the increase of litter and waste burden the ecosystem of the brook and the river.

The people and farmers

* It is necessary the people to be informed. They shouldn?t throw waste and debris at the banks of the river and the brook.

* The farmers shouldn't use so many fertilizers and the most important they shouldn?t throw the boxes, bottles and tins at the banks of the river and the brook. It is better to use ecological cultivation. Of course this is a general problem which we can not solve at the moment.

The state

* It is necessary not to permit the reception of so much sand from the brook and the river. This may alter its flowing.

* It is necessary to construct and use the biological cleaning of waste, litter and sewage.
* It could be a good idea to make certain interventions at the banks of the brook in certain places and reform them in places of enjoyment and entertainment. To keep them clean and protected from hunters, farmers and people who do not respect the environment.

* It is necessary to make the chartography of the region. As result, people won?t cut or burn the plane trees to make their farm larger and extend their cultivations.

* Another idea could be the construction of small dams to keep the waters as long as necessary.

We think that we have an excellent brook in our region and we have to protect it. We live in a tourist place and we think that we should take advantage of this and we propose the development of the region with the combination of brook and archeological site to a direction of a modern ecological park.

The existent refreshing settlement should be a perfect place for strolling, athletic settlements, enjoyment and fun from where there would start thematic pavements to the archeological site, to a Center of Environmental Education, to a votanic park, to the sea.

The Sonderkaer brook - Denmark

The brook runs through Billund and outfalls in Grindsted stream. It has a length of 2112 meters and the with varies between 1/2 to 3 meters.

. Salmon is spread through the northern Atlandic Ocean and the species mostly spawn in North America, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Russia, Portugal, Northern Norway and Finland. In Danmark, the natural salmon stocks can only be found in the west Jutland rivers, Sondekaer brook leads up to one of these rivers. Because of the calm water in the brook, it would be an almost perfect breeding place for the salmon.

The spawning period of salmon is from December to February. For some undiscovered reason, salmon always find the breeding ground by instinct. It has been argued that they use both a keen sense of smell and numerous small biological compasses contained in the front of their head. Under the breeding process, the freshly fertilized eggs are dug into the gravel. The younglings hatch in March and April and about three weeks later the young salmon come out of the ground. After two years the younglings are ready for the open sea.

* To make a better breeding ground, there were spawning-gravel in the brook. The spawning gravel is also habitat for insects. The spawning gravel lies from one bank to the other in 20 ? 30cm thick. In the places where the brook is very wide the big spawning-gravel is gathered in the middle of the brook and the length extends between 2 and 5 meters. As a result of this, there is difficulty in the breeding of salmon.

* In the brook there is a lot of ochre-pollution which damages the animal life and generally

the water life. In certain places of the brook they have built and re-established the banks

of the river and as a result all the ochre stays in the river. On some other places the brook

is very shallow and as a result of this the ochre is leaked out of the river and pollutes the surrounding area.

* Another problem is that people drain the area around the brook and so the ochre is leaked out of the brook and pollutes even more the surrounding area.
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* It is better to feel the brook with small spawning-gravel than big ones. This would help the salmon breeding.

* There shouldn?t be so much re-establishment along the banks of the river. This could reduce the ochre-pollution of the river.

* It could be a good idea to raise the ground of the brook by putting more spawning-gravel in the brook. So the ochre would not be leaked out of the river.

* Another way to stop the ochre-pollution is to make a lake so as the ochre would be deposited in it.


The Golden Horn in Istanbul - Turkey

After 1940 The Golden Horn was polluted with industrial wastes like the ones from stone quarries and other industries including marble industry, dockyards and textile plus house wastes.. These wastes are flowing into the two main streams that end up in The Golden Horn; Alibeykoy Stream and Kagithane Stream. The water was stagnant therefore the water pollution was enhancing. Also sometimes with the erosion, the water filled with soil. By the time, it was late 1970s The Golden Horn was totally contaminated

The initial step was collecting data and samples.

First of all they researched what the smudge had in it. They biologically, physically and chemically investigated the polluted water for about 2 years. In the end of their inquisitive researches they witnessed that the smudge was not threatening.
They have found out that The Golden Horn was an anaerobic environment. There were microorganisms, such as bacterium, that could live in the absence of atmospheric oxygen, in the water.
These organisms have released a gas and it disturbed the people living around The Golden Horn with its disgusting smell.
The collection of data continued till 1994. The researchers came up with four ideas to prevent the pollution and start the cleaning process and with the change of the government the project came alive.

1- Scraping

After they scraped the smudge they pumped the wet clay to the quarries. A smudge barrage was constructed in the quarries. From the barrage they filtered the wet clay and carried the water back to the Golden Horn. The amount of the smudge was 5,000,000 m3 in the quarry. The surface area of the wet clay was 180,000 m2 and it contained nitrogen and phosphor, which was a good optimum for plant growth. Then the mud was used for filling and parks are built over it. The wet clay that they removed from the water was even used to make pottery.This was the main process of cleaning.

2- Removing the "Galata Bridge" in order to make sure that the water flows.

After they completed this technical work there were still no fish or other living organisms in the Golden Horn so they removed the bridge and the water became brown which was a good sign because this was a change

3- The wastes that flow into The Golden Horn coming from the Alibeykoy and Kagithane streams had to be blocked.

Also they prevented Alibeyköy and Kagithane streams from flowing with its wastes into the Golden Horn.

4- The dockyard, Taskizak had to be closed.

In 4 months the amount of oxygen in The Golden Horn increased a lot. It started to renew itself. In this amount of oxygen some dangerous organisms, which had avoided fish to live, died. When people go in to the middle of the water with their boats they see many gray mullets. There are 23 kinds of fish in the Golden Horn. This is an optimum environment for fish because this is a place where The Black Sea and The Marmara Sea merges into.

After all of this hard work and effort there is still some contamination present in The Golden Horn as we have documented in the photos from our previous visit.

Some days the water is so clean that one can see the bottom. However, there are also days when a leakage occurs and the water is muddy. The cause of this contamination is Alibeykoy stream, which flows into the Golden Horn. The contamination levels exceed the capacity of the collectors in that area. Therefore some facilities directly send their wastes to the stream using illegal ways. Some of the factories let their wastes flow into the rain water collectors which also flow into the Golden Horn

For the protection of Golden Horn There must be no wastes mixing with into the waters of The Golden Horn.
There must be green fields around the Golden Horn so with photosynthesis the amount of oxygen in that area would increase and that oxygen would dissolve in the waters of the Golden Horn.
Scraping must be done often because the water is stationary. The municipality must educate the people living in that area.

Written by:
Grindsted Gymnasium - Denmark
Istanbul American Robert College - Turkey
Lyceum of Moudania - Greece