End Floods in Kartal and Maltepe Districts

İSKİ, the deep-rooted institution of IMM, put an end to the floods that have been experienced for years in Kartal and Maltepe districts with its infrastructure investment. Reminding that they have accelerated their work within the scope of the '150 Projects in 150 Days' marathon, IMM President Ekrem İmamoğlu, emphasized that they put an end to the images that took place in the coastal districts in the past and were also on the agenda of the world public opinion. İmamoğlu said, “Sometimes our underground works are forgotten and neglected in some sections, which we call eye-painting, sometimes polishing. And this is in the municipal processes. But we do not have this mentality. Instead of spending their resources on this process, they may have dealt with other priorities. They may have left the people of Istanbul unnecessarily alone with this misery for years. We express our determination to produce permanent solutions, not temporary solutions. We are working day and night for this vision.”

İSKİ, the long-established institution of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), put an end to the floods that have been experienced for years in Kartal and Maltepe districts with its infrastructure investment. Speaking at the “Kartal-Maltepe Waste Water Line and Stream Rehabilitation Opening Ceremony” held at Adalar Logistics Pier, IMM President Ekrem İmamoğlu“In order to better understand the importance of the project we have completed today, my request from you is this: Refresh in your memories some of the sights we have encountered in Istanbul for a quarter of a century. Unfortunately, seeing the sea and the land together and unfortunately the vehicles being under the bridges, the neighborhoods being submerged, even the fact that our citizens are submerged in water up to their waists and sometimes even the shops of our people are stuck in the underground passages, hundreds of Istanbulites cannot pass through the underpasses... In this sense, this view of Istanbul actually shows the importance of our work.”

İMAMOĞLU: “THEY MAY HAVE DONE OTHER PRIORITIES…”

Saying, “There is only one reason for this process, this torment,” İmamoğlu said, “Sometimes our work under the ground is forgotten and neglected in some sections, which we call eyewash, sometimes polishing. And this is in the municipal processes. But we do not have this mentality. Instead of spending their resources on this process, they may have dealt with other priorities. They may have left the people of Istanbul unnecessarily alone with this misery for years. We express our determination to produce permanent solutions, not temporary solutions. We are working day and night for this vision, and we continue a marathon at the point of putting '150 projects in 150 days' to the service of our citizens," he said. “For the past 3 years, we have been making efforts so that 16 million Istanbul residents can live a more humane, fairer, higher quality and even more peaceful life,” İmamoğlu said.

“We also have moves to address many needs of our families in need. We are opening kindergartens. And we have started a process that makes a great contribution to the development of children. We're increasing their numbers. What can we do more intensely for our citizens, especially women, children and youth, in these difficult days with our social assistance? We are carrying out that process by putting it on top of what we have done so far. We are building 10 metro lines at the same time in Istanbul. I am not going to list here some delaying efforts or processes related to obstruction. But despite that, more than 10 thousand people are currently serving our processes in the underground metro work in Istanbul. I would like to state that we are keeping a unique construction site process alive in Istanbul, and that despite all these difficult times and economic conditions, we have built the kilometers of metro lines we have been running and we will continue to multiply.”

“WE DON'T JUST DO WORK IN VISIBLE PLACES OF THE CITY”

Saying, "We do not only do business in the visible parts of our city," İmamoğlu said, "Social aid is also done without being seen or shown. Many of our underground works are carried out with a careful process at the point of saving the future of the city. Because we know that the process of these problems, which are ossified and make people's lives very problematic, cannot reach a healthy result with quick solutions. Just what is needed there; planning, common sense, and especially budget supply and continuity… It will not be interrupted either. “İSKİ rain water, waste water line construction and stream improvement works”, which we have completed and put into service today, covering our Kartal-Maltepe districts, is one of the important steps within the scope of these breakthroughs.

“WE ACTED WITHOUT POLITICAL PARTY DISCRIMINATION”

Reminding that he visited the mayors of 39 district municipalities in about 2 months after taking office, İmamoğlu said, “Let me express the importance of this as follows: As a district mayor who made great efforts to make his voice heard for 5 years, but could not host the Mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality even once in his district. I know the importance of this job. We have two Republican People's Party mayors here. But no matter which political party mayor, I am someone who knows how important their opinion is. We identified the problems in the meetings we held in Kartal and Maltepe. Yes, these problems should be resolved so that our mayors can be clear and their faces will be white. So that when he leaves, he can tell our citizens what we are doing. In this, we acted without discrimination of political parties. Today, only İSKİ investments in only two districts are around 1 billion 600 million liras. And we are walking uncompromisingly in infrastructure works. Despite the fact that İSKİ has not been raised, and İSKİ has been subjected to certain persecutions and difficulties, we continue on our way. Because we are an administration that is aware of the fact that this kind of populist, totally partisan attitude and behavior has an end, of course.”

YÜKSEL: “AS KARTAL, WE HAVE 25 YEARS OF INFRASTRUCTURE”

At the ceremony, Kartal Mayor Gökhan Yüksel also gave a speech. Reminding that he held political positions in the district before the mayorship, Yüksel said that he witnessed the floods closely. Stating that after his duty as the district mayor, they realized the production of rain water channels in the side streets in their area of ​​responsibility, Yüksel said, “Even though we were constructing rain water channels under our own responsibility, they were not fully efficient because the infrastructure of the center was not suitable in the main artery, in the main center. During the pandemic process, when people could not go out, do business, and produce, especially the instruction of our Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, his colleagues, our colleagues at İSKİ, our colleagues in Kartal showed a very serious dedication. And when I was the mayor -it was September and October- when I went out on the street in the first rain, and when I visited the tradesmen in the center, they said, 'We don't want a get-well wish, we want a solution now, Mayor'. I requested. So we started with the infrastructure first. As Kartal, we have 25 years of infrastructure. We still continue our work. In coordination with our Metropolitan Municipality," he said.

BAŞA: “TOTAL OF OUR INVESTMENTS IN 2 DISTRICTS ARE APPROXIMATELY 1,6 BILLION LIRA”

In his speech, İSKİ General Manager Şafak Başa said, “A total of 10,3 kilometers of waste water collector line in our two districts; 32,9 kilometers of wastewater network line; As of today, we have completed the production of 6,4 kilometers of rain water line and 2 kilometers of stream improvement. The current amount of these works is 223 million TL. We have completed and ongoing works in our Kartal district. Their total is around 1 billion 50 million liras. Again, the total of our completed and ongoing investments in our Maltepe district is around 525 million liras. After the speeches, the delegation, including İmamoğlu, CHP deputy Mahmut Tanal, Kartal Mayor Yüksel and Kartal Mayor Şerdil Dara Odabaşı, took a group photo.