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Salda Lake is a unique lake in the world, located in Anatolia, and contains minerals that can even solve the mysteries of Mars. However, the Turkish government's building greed risks polluting the precious waters of #Salda Lake and making it a huge tourist destination. Countless madness of human beings who do not understand how important it is to protect and respect the environment even in times of #pandemic .
Salda Lake, with its turquoise waters and white sand that distinguishes it from the others, is known among experts for containing extraordinary secrets with substances that scientists have been paying attention to for years. At #NASA , for example , scientists began studying the Perseverance rover before it prepared for launch to Mars. Last February, while waiting for the plane to land on the Red Planet, the American space agency posted a photo online of Salda Lake showing its importance for the current mission.
Now Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan , after receiving extensive feedback on the potential of the lake from all over the world, has chosen to combine this vast piece of water with an area of 45 square kilometers for a tourism project aimed at creating a warmer environment. green spaces for the public. With extensive restructuring already underway in much of the country, in remote villages and more modern cities in western Turkey, the conservative government in office for nearly two decades has so far operated in two ways: on the one hand, massive building projects that have appalled Greens and environmentalists; on the other hand, water pools, abundant greenery and great interest in social areas as seen in many centers of Turkey compared to the past.
Local activists, now confronted with the Salda Lake project, expressed themselves and feared that the double interest of both NASA and the Turkish government could open the door to uncontrolled mass tourism by signing off. death penalty, destroying the lake's ecosystem and valuable features. According to waiters at restaurants in the area, the moment has never been better since NASA set its sights on the area: “Tourism is life,” says one of them. But shepherds of the surrounding forests are already warning that the climate is changing and the air is less clean today than it was a few years ago. "The future of the lake is in danger if millions of tourists come," says Gazi Osmak Sakar, President of the Salda Lake Conservation Association.
Salda in Turkey is known for its flora and fauna, as well as the impeccably colored islets so-called "white islands", i.e. glitches from vacationers' postcards. But to get NASA's attention, there were some rare minerals, such as hydromagnesite, the substance identified in the Jezero crater where Perseverance landed last February. Scientists believe that hydromagnesite found on the lake shore is a remnant of microbialite piles, that is, rocks formed with the help of microbes. The discovery of this material caught the attention of researchers who were wondering: but billions of years ago, was life already present on Mars in the form of microbes? It is one of the answers that Salda Lake fossils can answer.
For example, geological engineer Servet Cevni explains that the feature of this lake is due to its closed ecosystem. "What makes it so special is the bacteria that live there, namely the single-celled creatures. But they are very fragile in the face of external influences." Sakar said, "The construction project should be cancelled. If the lake is not protected, it cannot be protected. It is being exploited."
Swimming is currently prohibited in the "white islands" area. Visitors should then be content to dive elsewhere. But its proponents are in favor of an even stricter line that bans immersion altogether: "If a single-celled organism dies, the raft is destroyed," warns engineer Mr. Cevni. "The white islands cannot be rebuilt. If we act now, the lake can regenerate in 150 to 200 years. Otherwise it will never recover." It's a challenging task. Nine barracks under construction appear on one side of the beach.
The Salda Lake Conservation Society lost a court of first instance in a court accused of stopping the development of the public garden. Osmak Sakar then calls on Unesco to promote the lake as a world heritage site, with a commitment to allow the lake to be preserved. "Lake Salda - warns - dying".
