The water crisis and three major mistakes

Turkey has been experiencing a severe drought in recent years. The dams that supply cities are drying up. Underground water resources are on the verge of depletion. 25-30 years ago, when you struck the ground with a pickaxe, water would gush out from 10 or 20 meters; now, in the same places, you have to drill 250-300 meters deep to extract water.

I remember that about 35 years ago, while I was managing the economy desk at Hürriyet newspaper, we were reading reports from US strategy analysts and publishing warnings. We wrote and warned: “In the future, water will be more important than oil. The discourse of 'Oil and War' will be replaced by 'Water and War.' There will be mass migrations due to drought. Turkey is the most at-risk country for the Middle East region, and Italy for Europe…” Everything that experts in economic futurism and military strategy said years ago is coming true.

The water crisis was coming loud and clear, but unfortunately, Turkey could not take the necessary precautions. Governments before the AKP era made significant dam investments despite the scarce resources they had. No government has used as much funding—tax revenue + domestic debt + foreign debt—as the AKP. However, despite having such abundant resources at its disposal, the AKP failed to see the risks of the increasing drought, and the dams built during the AKP era have fallen far short of meeting the needs of the growing population.

You may build dams, but building dams is not the end of the story. You must learn to use water resources correctly and efficiently, and you must protect groundwater.

Of the water used in Turkey;

73 percent is used in agriculture,

16 percent in residential areas,

11 percent in industry.

While agricultural water use accounts for 73 percent of total water in our country, this rate is around 45 percent in OECD countries.

Turkey has made three major mistakes. One of them is the closure of the Village Institutes… While 85 percent of the population lived in rural areas, we had embarked on an educational initiative for villages. Through the Millet Mektepleri (Nation Schools) first, and then the Village Institutes established in 1940, rural areas were to be taught education and efficient agricultural production methods. The Village Institutes were closed due to the cooperation of landowners, religious figures, and the merchant class in parliament. This is the root cause of almost all the problems we face today.

Today, water resources are being wasted due to the reckless agricultural irrigation practiced by uneducated farmers and the wells they drill at their own discretion; and while we think we are eating healthily, cancer and diabetes are becoming widespread due to the agricultural pesticides used by these uneducated farmers.

The second major mistake we made was shelving agricultural planning. For years, experts in this country on agriculture and climate have warned, giving examples from the world: “Create Turkey’s water map. Based on this water map, plan which products should be farmed in which region.”

MEASURES THAT MUST BE TAKEN

Experts in the field have prepared pages of reports on the measures that must be taken in the face of drought. Let us try to summarize the first ones that come to mind here.

We cannot ignore the primitive irrigation techniques used by farmers in agriculture. Flood irrigation is used to a large extent. The farmer drills a well on their field, releases the water, and leaves. Well drilling must be strictly prevented, and a transition to drip (or sprinkler) irrigation must be made. To prevent evaporation in irrigation canals, the canals should be covered with solar panels, and free electricity should be provided to the farmer. (China is doing this.)

Do not rely on the savings people will make at home while brushing their teeth. Urban usage is 16 percent. I asked two different artificial intelligence units. The common data they found in their research on the internet is this: There is around 30 percent leakage in the network in urban usage. (We read plenty of news last year, especially about the water network coming from Muğla to Bodrum, where a burst occurred almost every day of the year.) This means there is a need for investment in these areas.

In many organized industrial zones, there is still no water treatment and reuse.

Treatment plants in cities should use water for garden and road irrigation. Especially in coastal cities, we must stop discharging treated water into the sea under the guise of 'deep sea discharge' and shift it to green space irrigation. (Or is the wastewater that is claimed to be treated not actually being treated and just dumped into the sea?) Rainwater harvesting must definitely not be neglected.

These mistakes have been ongoing for years. During the AKP government, they continued to worsen. Especially during the AKP era, construction and mining permits in agricultural areas and near water sources pose a major threat. This became the third major mistake.

The hundreds of small hydroelectric power plants (HES) and dams that the AKP built or had built, especially in the Black Sea region, were investments aimed at destroying water resources rather than using them efficiently.

The metropolitan municipality law enacted during the AKP era also dealt a separate blow to agriculture. The number of villages, which was around 50 thousand, dropped to 20 thousand. Today, there are at least two imams and muezzins in every village. Schools in the villages are closed. Yet, there should have been schools in the villages, there should have been teachers, and at least one agricultural engineer and one veterinarian should have been employed in every village.

There is a division of labor in the state. The central government, the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ), builds the dams and investments that will provide water to cities, and the municipality undertakes the distribution and treatment of water to the network. We observe this in many areas. The AKP applies economic embargoes to districts, provinces, and metropolitan cities where it did not win the municipalities. Let alone making the necessary investments, it seizes the resources of the municipalities and squeezes them.

On top of that, we are witnessing TOKİ continuing construction at full speed in Sazlıdere, a water collection basin in Istanbul, and around Lake Terkos. I do not know if there is any point in making suggestions for the correct and efficient use of water resources and for cities not to remain without water under these conditions.

Just like in the poem by the great 16th-century Turkish poet Fuzuli:

“If I speak, it has no effect; if I remain silent, my heart is not at peace.”