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Turkish drinking water project results in changed legislation

The Turkish operation celebrates a significant achievement this month, with the coming in effect of a new by-law in Turkish drinking water legislation based for an important part on the research done by the team in Istanbul.

The research was conducted as part of “Technical Assistance for Assessment of Drinking Water Resources and Treatment Plants in Turkey”, a project within Turkey’s European Union (EU) Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) program, with the objective to accelerate Turkey’s accession by achieving a high level of environmental protection and compliance with EU directives. The goal of the project with the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization ultimately was to ensure that water intended for human consumption is wholesome and clean, and that there are legislative frameworks in place to help achieve this for years to come.

In order to achieve this, one of the main objectives of the project was to update the Turkish by-law for the quality requirements of surface water that is used for drinking water. This by-law (published in Turkey’s Official Gazette on 29/06/2012, number 28338) states the level of treatment that is required to be applied to water supplied from the surface water resources based on their water quality, which in turn is determined using 41 conventional parameters. The by-law classifies water resources in three different groups: a group that requires physical treatment and disinfection, one that requires physical and chemical treatment and disinfection, and a group that can only supply drinking water after applying advanced treatment and disinfection.

As a result of the research into and assessment of all 287 drinking water resources and 193 potable drinking water treatment plants in Turkey, our team suggested new, up-to-date parameters for the classification of surface water resources. The research covered both the conventional parameters, as well as the presence of micropollutants. The team looked at a total of 89 micropollutants which are likely to be present in Turkish drinking water resources. After the analyses of the water resources, 49 of these 89 were detected.

As a result of this work, the updated by-law of quality requirements of surface water to be obtained or planned to be obtained as drinking water was published in the Official Gazette on July 7th, and is numbered 30823. The new list of parameters consists of several of the parameters already addressed in the by-law, and replaces some with updated versions, and it now includes the micropollutants that were detected in the research. Stantec, together with the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, updated the limits of the parameters already in the by-law, based on the latest technological improvements in the drinking water treatment sector and new limits were determined for those parameters suggested by Stantec.

Murat Sarioglu, Operations Director of Stantec in Turkey: “We are proud of this achievement, the research done for this project is conclusive and we are happy that we were able to make the desired change in the legal and institutional structure happen, in close cooperation with the Ministry. It is an honor for us to be involved in this project, where we can use our expertise to help ensure a healthy future for our water infrastructure.”

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