March 22 World Water Day: 'No to the privatization of water'

The TMMOB İzmir Provincial Coordination Board, İzmir City Council, İzmir Bar Association, DİSK, KESK, İzmir Medical Chamber, Konak City Council, Aegean City Councils Union, İzmir Living Spaces and EGEÇEP's March 22 World Water Day joint statement included the following:

The United Nations (UN) designated March 22 as World Water Day to draw attention to the scarcity of water resources in the world, and to announce and support efforts regarding the protection, development, and efficient use of water resources. The theme for 2025 has been set as 'Preserving Glaciers'.

The rapid melting of glaciers, which store approximately 70 percent of the world's freshwater, is altering water flow in regions where billions of people live, causing floods, landslides, and rising sea levels, and damaging ecosystems. In January of this year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched the 'International Year of Glacier Preservation' initiative.

It is predicted that the melting of glaciers will change global climate patterns, leading to more frequent and severe weather events.

While the frequency and severity of meteorological disasters linked to climate change continue to increase, drought, water scarcity, and desertification threaten water resources and life itself. While the vital importance of water is clear;  our water assets that need to be protected are decreasing in both quantity and quality, and our wetlands are drying up, being plundered, and disappearing.

While events organized by various institutions and organizations share information on the importance of water and water conservation, the causes of risks and threats to water resources are not sufficiently addressed. It is often ignored that unplanned urbanization, unregulated industrialization carried out in the interest of capital, and investments in energy, mining, tourism, etc., are the sources of the fundamental threats to our water resources.

Our waters are being written off through legislative changes, conservation plans, and omnibus regulations. Our surface waters, groundwater, seas, coastal areas, basins, forests that protect our water, wetlands, protected areas, biodiversity, natural and cultural assets, and living spaces are being destroyed or excessively polluted for the sake of profit. In our country, half of the wetlands have lost their ecosystem characteristics since the 1960s.

Urbanization and environmental policies based on zoning and rent turn natural events into disasters, causing great destruction. The lack of oversight regarding activities such as energy, mining, industry, and tourism also threatens life and nature.

The situation in our region is no different from the rest of the country.  Basin management plans indicate that the final status of the majority of surface and groundwater bodies in the Gediz, Küçük Menderes, Büyük Menderes, and North Aegean basins, which include İzmir, is poor and weak.

While the pressure of pollution on surface and groundwater in our basins continues to increase, our water assets are disappearing due to uncontrolled groundwater extraction. The increasing pollution pressure in the Tahtalı and Gördes dam basins, which provide approximately 50% of İzmir's drinking water, makes these already highly polluted basins even more vulnerable, creating vital risks.

In addition to the algal blooms occasionally seen in the Gulf of İzmir, we witnessed fish deaths in the summer of 2024. Our seas are under the pressure of pollution, and our coastal areas are under occupation.

While the Çamlı Dam Basin, planned to meet the future water needs of the city of İzmir and capable of providing clean water to 250,000-300,000 people, has been sacrificed to the Efemçukuru gold mine, the city's residents remain vulnerable to the environmental risks created and to be created by the mine. Although legal victories have been achieved through years of efforts to protect the city's water assets, The TÜPRAG gold company continues to operate by increasing its capacity 2.5 times, adding new threats to our vital water resources, and we continue our struggle.

Those who do not protect our water, who allow it to be used for profit, who pollute it, and who turn a blind eye to its pollution must be changed.

We will continue to fight together against the threats to our water and against the processes of privatizing water, soil, and natural assets that belong to all living things, and their transfer into the hands of multinational corporations.

Our message has not changed since March 22, 1993, when World Water Day was signed into effect;

We said, and we continue to say: “Water is a vital right. Access to clean and healthy water is the right of all living beings”...

We said, and we continue to say: “Water, the most basic requirement for life and a fundamental natural asset, is not a commodity but the common heritage of all living beings”...

As we have been saying for 30 years; today, we once again emphasize our determination to fight for our right to water,  which is essential for the continuity of life. 

Starting from the point that water is an indispensable natural right for all living beings, we reiterate our shared words once again;

Protecting the right of every living being to access healthy water in a way that eliminates inequalities in access to water,

Protecting water, which is essential for life, and planning for its proper use,

Preventing pollution risks in basins, improving water quality, and expanding the struggle against the housing, industrial, energy, and mining sectors that pose pollution risks,

Managing agricultural water use correctly and preventing pollution risks caused by agriculture,

Carrying out necessary inspection and monitoring work against the uncontrolled extraction and pollution of our groundwater without victimizing our farmers, and preventing the uncontrolled and excessive use of groundwater by industry,

The responsibility to protect our water, our basins, our seas, our coasts, our rivers, our forests, our biodiversity, our natural and cultural assets, and our living spaces, and to save our future, rests on all of our shoulders. 

For this;  We call on everyone, especially local governments, to act together. 

With the weight of our vital responsibility and the consciousness of organized struggle,

Starting from the fact that water is the most fundamental right to life, we say NO to the privatization, commodification, and commercialization of water,

With the awareness and determination to protect İzmir's water assets and the right to access healthy water, we say NO to mining projects in Bergama, Efemçukuru, Turgutlu Çal Mountain, and Gördes,

We say let the Çamlı Dam be built and our water be protected, 

We say NO to geothermal drilling and power plants in the Büyük Menderes and Gediz basins that are operated recklessly and have been confirmed by expert reports to pollute these basins,

We once again share our determination to protect our future with the public and call for support for our struggle for life.