Pollution Reduction in the Marmara Sea

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Country context: Turkiye has achieved remarkable economic and social development results since the early 2000s and is now the 19th-largest economy in the world. Over the past decade, however, productivity growth has slowed as reform momentum has waned and large inequalities remain across socio-economic groups and gender. The country experienced an accelerating economic recovery in 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and projected rising macro-financial volatility, significantly impacting households.Turkiye’s coasts and seas are a key asset to the country’s economic growth and job creation, with maritime sectors accounting for 11% of GDP. In addition, coastal tourism is one of Turkiye’s most dynamic and fastest-growing economic sectors (9% percent of jobs, 11% of GDP). However, Turkiye’s geographic, climatic, and socioeconomic conditions make it highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, earthquakes, and other environmental hazards, making adaptation and resilience high priorities. In addition, the country’s sustainable development is hampered by increasing air pollution, waste mismanagement, land degradation and desertification, water scarcity, and water pollution.Sectoral and institutional context: Turkiye faces a pollution problem that contaminates its bordering seas, especially the Sea of Marmara, on which the proposed project focuses. Bordered by one of Turkiye’s most economically active area, the Sea of Marmara is under significant anthropogenic pressures. The Marmara region is the smallest but most populated region of Turkiye, hosting 32% of the country’s population and two of the country’s four largest cities: Istanbul and Bursa. The Marmara region is a key industrial and agricultural zone contributing 42% to the country’s GDP. The rapid development of the Marmara asa region has however led to growing stresses on the coastal and marine environment. Most importantly, decades of partially managed effluent discharge from human settlements and industries have generated pollution in the Sea of Marmara that is reaching unsustainable levels.A symptom of its degrading environmental condition, the Sea of Marmara has witnessed several mucilage outbreaks in the recent past. Such outbreaks occur when phytoplankton proliferates and secretes large quantities of organic matter that composes the mucilage. This forms a slimy layer that spreads over the surface of the sea and then sinks under the surface. Pollution originating from the river discharges and municipal sewage was asserted as the main factor causing mucilage events, compounded by overfishing and warm water temperatures. These mucilage outbreaks are damaging aquatic life and the blue economy and are expected to occur more frequently in the future, with warming sea temperatures due to climate change, unless pollution is controlled.With a view to turning the tide on its environmental degradation, increasingly threatening the environmental status of the Sea of Marmara, the economic sectors that rely on it, and the health of the riparian population, the Government of Turkiye launched the Marmara Sea Integrated Strategic Plan. The proposed project will support the Government of Turkiye in implementing the Plan and reducing pollution flowing into the Sea of Marmara.Relationship to CPF: The objectives of the proposed project are aligned with Turkiye’s 2018-2023 Country Partnership Framework (CPF), which three focus areas are growth, inclusion, and sustainability. By supporting improved wastewater treatment services in cities located around the Sea of Marmara, the project will especially contribute to the eighth objective of the CPF (‘Improved sustainability and resilience of cities’). Improving the environmental health of the Marmara Sea basin, the project will also foster the resilience of its socio-ecosystems and thus also contribute to the ninth objective (‘Strengthened results under climate action agenda’).The proposed project components are as follows:Component 1: Reducing point-source and nonpoint-source pollution.Subcomponent 1.1: Upgrading urban wastewater treatment plants. This subcomponent will seek to reduce the pollution of the Sea of Marmara by addressing one of the main sources of pollution: insufficient treatment of urban wastewater. It will be dedicated to rehabilitating and upgrading existing WWTPs to remove nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) and other pollutants from urban wastewater before their discharge into the Sea of the Marmara and the Black Sea.Subcomponent 1.2: Nature-based solutions for nonpoint-source pollution. This subcomponent will finance nature-based solutions (NBS) to reduce nonpoint-source pollution in the Sea of Marmara. Such NBS include wetlands and buffer zones that help absorb urban and agricultural runoff, either in isolation or combined with WWTPs.Component 2: Fostering private sector participation in pollution reduction.Subcomponent 2.1 Facilitating public-private partnerships in wastewater treatment. The first subcomponent will facilitate public-private partnerships to help maximize private sector investment in WWTPs. It will first help develop the enabling framework for PPPs in the wastewater treatment sector, in the framework of the recently updated legal framework for municipal PPPs. This support will be linked to a planned joint assessment by the WB, IFC and eventually MIGA to: i) provide an options analysis to help government and World Bank team assess if PPP or a different contracting instrument would be best suited for the Project’s objectives and given existing public sector capacity constraints; (ii) assess demand and supply, legal, other relevant factors and deliver design of a PPP/contracting solution to meet Project objectives; (iii) include elements of skills transfer and capacity building for public sector from private sector, bringing in the best of regional/global private sector expertise to partner with local Turkish private sector to ensure sustainability and economic development. Second, the subcomponent will design, and facilitate the implementation of one or two competitively tendered, hybrid-financed, brownfield PPPs with a view to piloting the enabling framework described above. These PPPs would ensure the rehabilitation or construction, operation and maintenance of the required wastewater treatment or reuse infrastructure through private provision.Subcomponent 2.2: Enabling private sector investment in pollution reduction and management. This subcomponent will facilitate private sector investments in the reduction and management of pollution, beyond urban WWTPs. It will first promote the uptake of clean technologies by polluting industries and finance: (i) a technical platform to facilitate access to knowledge and technical information on the best available clean technologies and innovation; and (ii) financial incentive program to accelerate investment and the adoption of clean technologies. Second, the subcomponent will help reduce pollution from the fisheries industry by designing and implementing a financial incentive program targeted to the fisheries industries and/or fishermen associations to support investment in solid waste management and wastewater treatment. Third, the subcomponent will seek to reduce plastic pollution along rivers that eventually litters the Sea of Marmara, including by scaling-up existing innovative technical solutions to limit plastic pollution, and finance public awareness campaigns to foster a change in the behavior of the local population.Component 3: Institutional strengthening and project management.Subcomponent 3.1: Improving decision-making for pollution reduction. This subcomponent will support technical assistance and capacity building to improve the collection of environmental and economic data for the Sea of Marmara and the use of that data in decision-making. It will first upgrade the existing monitoring system of the Sea of Marmara, financing the needed equipment and technical assistance