First lady Emine Erdoğan thanked institutions, organizations and environmental volunteers supporting efforts to protect the Lake Van basin, calling on the public to safeguard one of Türkiye's most valuable natural treasures for future generations.
In a social media post on Friday, Erdoğan described Lake Van as one of the country's most precious natural assets and stressed that protecting its waters and surrounding ecosystem is "no longer a choice but a shared responsibility toward future generations."
"I sincerely thank all our institutions, organizations and environmental friends whose efforts have strengthened this great environmental mobilization. Let us protect it together, let us preserve it together," she wrote.
Erdoğan shared the message while reposting the Zero Waste Foundation's update on ongoing conservation efforts in the Lake Van basin.
The basin has been the focus of the Lake Van basin Protection Action Plan and Implementation Program, launched in 2021 under Erdoğan's leadership and coordinated by the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry. The initiative aims to tackle wastewater pollution, remove lake-bottom sludge and combat illegal construction while protecting the basin's ecological future.
