National sectoral plans aiming to control land based sources of pollution for the Mediterranean Sea coast in Turkey Original Research Article

The “convention for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea against pollution” (Barcelona Convention), which was adopted in 1976, entered into force in 1978. Turkey is one of the contracting parties of the Barcelona Convention. In this study, the sectoral plans as a part of the preparation of “national action plan (NAP) for land based sources of pollution” for Mediterranean Region has been presented. Water catchments basin approach is taken into consideration instead of Administrative Region in this study, since it is believed that it would be better to define the problems in water catchments basin level. The scope of the study covers five basins (Kuzey Ege, Gediz, Küçük Menderes, Büyük Menderes, Meriç-Ergene) along the Aegean Sea Coast and six basins (Batı Akdeniz, Antalya, Doğu Akdeniz, Ceyhan, Seyhan, and Asi) along the Mediterranean Sea Coast in Turkey. In these basins, it is described how to reach “strategic action plan (SAP)” targets in terms of emission loads from different industries by 2010. For this purpose, major sources and pollutant quantities in the basins are gathered from Baseline Budget Study, ongoing and planned projects and mitigation measures are presented. Hot spots and sensitive areas are also identified and taken into account. Moreover, some recommendations regarding the necessary economic instruments in order to implement strategic action plans are described and discussed.