İZMİR - Residents of Uzundere Neighborhood have continued to resist Adem Petrol Company that has drilled two wells in the neighborhood to build Geothermal Power Plant (GPP). “We have a few cultivation sites in our village and they want to toxify them,” said the neighborhood residents.

 

The decision of İzmir Governorate saying “Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is not required” for a region in Uzundere Neighborhood of İzmir’s Karabağlar district paves the way for Geothermal Power Plant (GPP). The neighborhood residents have applied to the jurisdiction to stop the GPP to be built in the region. The neighborhood residents stopped the construction equipment brought to the region by Adem Petrol Enerji Company to build a GPP. But the company drilled two wells in an area belonging to the Provincial Directorate of Highways at night on January 30. At night, the villagers gathered and started a vigil in the area.

 

‘Health of the villagers is ignored’

 

Meryem Evrim Çetin Çamlıkur, an ecologist from Uzundere, said the company tried to build a geothermal power plant while lawsuit process was going on. Stating that the residents, who have lived in Uzundere for 350 years, will be forced to leave the region, Meryem said, “Pressures such as urban transformation and fairgrounds are the matters. One of these is the geothermal power plant. The water taken from 600 to 1000 meters below the ground contains carcinogenic and radioactive substances. The substances released from the water will be mixed into air and water. We have a few cultivation sites, and they will get harm.”

 

‘Commission of expert consists of civil engineers’

 

Stating that the lawsuit is going on, Meryem said that the construction works have been started and that laws have been discounted. Meryem reported that the commission of expert consists of civil engineers instead of agriculture and environmental engineers. Meryem said they would never allow the geothermal power plant to be built in the region.

 

One of residents in Uzundere, Gülfer Konuk said, “I am a resident of Uzundere village. Uzundere shouldn’t be given to anyone. We don’t want our trees to be given to anyone. Our village is natural and we want to keep it like that. We will not allow them to cut our olive trees.”

 

Another resident Nuray Baysal meanwhile said, “We are happy like that. We have a few cultivation sites in our village and they want to toxify them. We don’t want anything from them just let us alone.”