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“Population is increasing but the income of the municipality is not. Therefore, UNDP's project, which I mentioned above, aims to reduce the pressure of the Syria crisis on the cities as well as to integrate the refugees into the society.” continued Ms. Benmayor. She was one of the most enthusiastic members of the group climbing up the hills for a better view of the construction sites, talking to project people and UNDP personnel, under a desert-like Hatay heat. Her two days of series of articles followed suite; “Producing solutions to environmental problems, local municipalities, Ilbank (Turkey’s regional development institution) and UNDP work to enable Syrians to be self-sufficient and self-reliant.”
“Of the 50 million euros that the UNDP secured a financing from the European Union Trust Fund (EUTF), 22.5 million euros are dedicated to strengthening the municipal infrastructure. The project covers Hatay, Şanlıurfa, Kilis and
Gaziantep. The construction continues, in cooperation with Ilbank, for solid waste transfer stations in Yayladağı and Kırıkhan in Hatay which we visited. The waste transfer station in Reyhanlı district was activated. UNDP has built 6 waste transfer stations in the Southeast through different funds to date.”
“If you ask, ‘what these stations do’, they prevent wild landfill.” wrote another media representative; Ms. Fatoş Karahasan from CNN Turk. Quoting from the Project Manager, Mr. Sertaç Turhal, she said “Small solid waste collection trucks of district municipalities come to the station and transfer the waste to large lorries provided by UNDP to Hatay Municipality. Waste is thus transported for sorting from the districts to the centre in Hatay.”
Fatoş Karahasan,
journalist