I tracked the drought; the situation is terrifying!

 We talk about the heat, but we don't talk about the drought. I have been in the field filming for a “water documentary” for 1 month. What I saw terrified me. There is no water in the Söke Plain, Turkey’s richest agricultural land! The drought has hit the Söke Plain as well. In the plain, which contains the world’s most fertile cotton fields, half of the cotton has burned due to severe drought and extreme heat! The Ministry of Agriculture is providing limited water to farmers because there is not enough water.

The General Directorate of Meteorology published the meteorological drought map for June 2024. Turkey is under the influence of a very severe drought. I don't want to be a doomsayer, but I believe that the water scarcity that will be experienced along with global warming and severe drought will soon have worse consequences than the Covid pandemic.

While crops were burning from thirst in the Aegean region, on Turkey’s most fertile agricultural lands, I wondered about the situation in the Konya plain. While passing by Lake Tuz, Turkey’s second-largest lake, even the color of the water, which had receded significantly due to the drought, had changed. There is no water in Lake Tuz! Although people walking on the salt and their shadows create a mystical scene, coming face to face with the reality is saddening. There is no water left in the 8,000-year-old Lake Meke in Konya’s Karapınar district. The lake, known as the “evil eye bead of the world,” is no longer a lake. But even in this waterless state, it is a center of attraction for tourists. Due to global warming and the promotion of irrigated agriculture in the region, Lake Meke has dried up because of the water drawn from underground. There is a Lake Meke sign, but there is no lake in sight! The lake has disappeared, but the sign remains. It hurts me to take a photo in front of the dried-up lake.

The Konya Plain is Turkey’s least rainy, most arid plain. It has been known as such for centuries. It is even taught in geography classes. Summers are hot and dry, and winters are rainy. However, due to the climate crisis, it didn't even snow on the plain this winter. Yet, for some reason, despite the ancient agricultural knowledge known for centuries and the predicted climate crisis, irrigated agriculture was introduced in Konya!

You read that right. Irrigated agriculture has been practiced since 2008 in the Konya Plain, which receives no rain and has calcareous soil. Crops that are not at all suitable for the region and require large amounts of water, such as corn, alfalfa, and sugar beets, are being planted as animal feed! The state provides subsidies to farmers to plant these crops! However, because there is no water, illegal wells have been opened in many places. An elderly farmer I spoke to says that water used to come out from a depth of 15 meters in the 90s, but today they cannot find water even at 130 meters.

Is it not a crime to promote irrigated agriculture where there is no water?

The fact that irrigated agriculture is practiced on 40 percent of the cultivated area in the waterless Konya Plain did not just dry up Lake Meke. It created another threat: Sinkholes!

They are a new attraction for tourists' cameras, but their existence is terrifying. The number of sinkholes, which are formed by the collapse of the ground as a result of the depletion of groundwater due to the ambition to produce crops like corn, sugar beets, and alfalfa that are not suitable for the soil structure, is not 10, not 20, not 100. 600 sinkholes of various sizes have been identified in the Konya Plain. A map of them has even been created. Many of the sinkholes that have formed are in the Karapınar district.

It was not easy to find the sinkholes in the vast Konya Plain. If it weren't for journalist Mithat Korkusuz, our adventure to find the sinkholes would have been quite painful. Mithat Korkusuz is a journalist from Karapınar. In his childhood, a sinkhole that formed in a relative's field caught his attention, and since that day, sinkholes have been his area of interest. He says that the sinkholes formed by the increasing ground collapses are starting to threaten human life safety.

Mithat Korkusuz is the person who introduced sinkholes to the Turkish public. He has written and warned many times that the transition to irrigated agriculture in Konya, incorrect irrigation methods, and water drawn from underground cause collapses in the calcareous soil.

He took us to the first “fox-killer” sinkhole. A giant pit in the middle of the field. Its edge is surrounded by wire. The sinkhole got this name because it swallowed a fox. A shepherd also fell into it once. He was rescued 4 days later. What surprised me the most was the Yarımoğlu Sinkhole. It was named this because it formed in the field of a farmer whose surname is Yarımoğlu.

The sinkhole is so deep and wide... And unfortunately, corn production is still being carried out next to it. A tractor is plowing the field next to the sinkhole. How much this contrast tells us...

As a public, we are both the perpetrators and the victims of the authority that cannot manage water.

Unless sinkholes form right next to us, we will continue to close our eyes to what is coming and keep taking photos like tourists!