I first met the river when I drove over it on the bridge into Şile, then when I began to live just 50 meters away from the river banks she and I became more intimately connected.

Every day the river would gift me something, most often the sight of her visitors and her inhabitants. I lack a good camera and skills so the photos here do not do justice to the beauty.

This page is all about the river that flows from Yeniköy to Şile

Yeniköy Deresi. The river before it was fully dredged and paved with concrete

"people walk or drive over the bridge without slowing to see what a miracle of life is just below them"

its easy to complain, but what about a solution?

"how will you protect people from floods?" is the question the chief of the water authority asked me during our meeting.

the below project, i call it Şile oasis, was my reply.

If you would like to be involved in work to protect your river or to restore a wetland near you, let's talk. There is strength in numbers!

The river has been concreted over. The following photos show some of the floods, surrounding flooded areas, the red stained river after inland mining activities discharge their silt into the river (adding to the flood risk), and the situation as is now. (September 2024)

We designed a solution that would work towards alleviating many of the flood plain problems while preserving and restoring the ecosystem and also providing socio-economic benefit to the local people.

The authorities were unable to act upon this plan despite their own insistence that such a plan was the "only true solution". The reason that they gave us for this inability was "political difficulty".

We believe that this project or elements of it can be adapted to be useful for other rivers and wetland areas. If you would like more information and details contact me.

the following photos are from the visual presentation explaining the concept of the proposed project

"here in turkey there is a terrible situation where freshwater & biodiversity are under threat from the interventions of the authorities. they should be held safely in the wetlands areas, but in the name of development and flood risk mitigation, they are destroyed. sadly it is also known that such measures do not protect from flooding and, in fact can actually cause worse flooding."

The following photos show the river from the recent past along with some of the wildlife that relied on the river and the flood plain.

Sadly now there is no where for those egret to hunt.

The migrating storks are increasingly dependent upon the scraps they can find at the open rubbish dumps as their habitats have been destroyed by initiatives and developments such as this.

if you would like more details, the flood report and the detailed report of this project please contact me.