The saying 'Running water doesn't gather filth' has become a lie

During the scorching heat that has gripped our country, we were on the road filming for a new documentary.

While filming our documentary on drought and the water crisis in temperatures that did not drop below 35 degrees, what I heard from experts sent shivers down my spine.

While Turkey was among the "semi-arid" countries in recent years, it has now regressed to the status of a "water-poor" country due to the effects of the climate crisis and incorrect agricultural practices. If an urgent mobilization is not initiated, we could face water scarcity by 2030.

In the near future, "water" will emerge as a major problem. The farmers in the Büyük Menderes Basin, where we were filming, have already begun to experience water scarcity and water pollution.

We filmed the water they draw from the Büyük Menderes River. You can see the extent of the pollution in the water with the naked eye, without even needing an analysis. Unfortunately, the saying 'running water doesn't gather filth' is no longer valid today. Our running waters and rivers have been polluted. Sewage waste is flowing into the rivers. We have started discharging it into the nearest rivers. Chemicals used in agricultural fields; pesticides and chemical fertilizers are seeping not only into lakes and streams but also into groundwater along with rainwater.

During our filming, I noticed something. Even the villagers get their drinking water from the market and use bottled water. They irrigate the fruits and vegetables they will consume themselves not with water taken from the river, but with drinking water provided by the municipality.

Water is our common asset. Your water may come from a tap, but the source to which that water is connected is the entire ecosystem and perhaps the water source we will use in the future. While using every single drop, we must also make the right decisions about which areas of use we prefer and why we prefer them. For example, did you know that nearly 400 sinkholes have formed in Konya due to incorrect agricultural policies? What kind of logic is it to provide incentives to producers to grow corn, a water-intensive crop, in the non-wetland Konya plain?

Today, due to incorrect agricultural policies and the failure to properly guide and educate farmers, food scarcity is also at our doorstep.

"Bread is the father, water is the mother," says a Russian proverb. We cannot give up on either our mother or our father. Therefore, we need to change our habits, our production methods, our thoughts, and our perspectives very quickly!

And this is only possible together!