An emergency water mobilization must be declared!

The effects of the climate crisis have begun to strike Turkey’s most fertile and largest agricultural lands. First the Çukurova, and now the Söke Plain! Farmers are feeling the water scarcity to their bones. The Ministry of Agriculture has imposed restrictions on irrigation rights due to the decrease in water levels in dams. The water level of the Büyük Menderes River has dropped. Waters have receded in the Tahtalı Dam, which provides drinking water to İzmir.

Scientists were saying 15-20 years ago that the Anatolian geography would be the most affected by drought. What was expected has come to pass; drought has begun to show its effect in Western and Central Anatolia in Turkey. The Seyhan Irrigation Union has warned Çukurova farmers with an official letter stating, “There is no water! Do not plant.”

Farmers are aware of the scale of the drought and water scarcity. But what about city dwellers? As long as water flows from their taps, water awareness does not form among city dwellers. It was only when the Bodrum Municipality announced that water could not be provided to the Bodrum Peninsula for 20 hours that the panic began. As a result of the Mumcular Dam, one of the important sources providing drinking water to the Bodrum Peninsula, falling to its dead storage level, the water supplied to Bodrum was cut off! For now, short-term solutions to the water shortage are being produced with stopgap measures. However, the climate crisis is coming very hard.

For a month, I have been tracking fresh water across large agricultural lands, from the Konya Plain to the Büyük Menderes basin. The situation is dire! Drought has hit the cotton fields. The number of sinkholes formed due to the withdrawal of groundwater in the Konya Plain has reached 600. Farmers who want to modernize their irrigation have been left without support. The investment for transitioning to drip irrigation systems, which use less water, has been dumped on the shoulders of the farmers.

City dwellers and farmers are like people from two different planets, unfortunately! City dwellers have no idea what farmers are experiencing. They also do not care about the difficulties farmers face or their responsibility to produce. Yet, the water scarcity and drought we are experiencing will reflect on our tables as famine. An emergency water mobilization is essential, otherwise, it will be too late!

Emine Erdoğan launched a “Water Efficiency Mobilization” by posting a tweet in 2023. If I hadn't researched it on the internet, I wouldn't have known about the water mobilization initiated under the leadership of Emine Erdoğan.

Emine Erdoğan announced the mobilization, which was launched with the principle of “Zero Loss in Water,” as follows:

“We will achieve success in the Water Efficiency Mobilization, which was launched to protect our natural resources, through the cooperation of our institutions and our citizens. Water, the bounty of nature, is also the source of efficiency. I sincerely believe that practices to prevent water loss will be implemented in all our institutions and organizations that have this awareness. Let us protect our water, that is, our future, against the climate crisis with the principle of ‘Zero Loss in Water.’”

I invite Ms. Emine to the Konya Plain. It is important for her to see the result caused by wrong agricultural policies. Because the number of these sinkholes is not 10, not 20, but has reached 600! Sinkholes have formed because the cycle of nature has been interfered with. In the plain where wheat has been produced for centuries, corn production has been encouraged in the last 15 years! Corn is a crop that requires a lot of water. In the Konya Plain, where rainfall is limited, farmers have flocked to corn production because they would receive subsidies. Illegal wells were opened to find water. Illegal wells have consumed the groundwater. The lime-rich soil of the plain responded with collapses as its water was withdrawn. Some of the sinkholes that occur with sudden, massive collapses are enormous; their diameter reaches 1 kilometer and their depth reaches 150 meters. Like a metaphor, it reflects the appetite of humans who are never satisfied with their greed. It is terrifying...

You could start the “Water Efficiency Mobilization” from the Ministry of Agriculture, for example. By banning corn production in Konya!

But first, come to Konya; to see the result of wrong agricultural and water policies!