Turkey’s capital, Ankara, is facing a serious water crisis due to several factors including a prolonged extreme drought, deteriorating infrastructure and what many citizens denounce as poor management by the authorities, forcing entire neighbourhoods and districts to suffer daily water cuts that have sparked public outrage.
The dams that supply the city have fallen to levels of only 1.12%, forcing water supplies to be cut off for hours at a time on a rotating schedule, and forcing residents in many neighbourhoods to stock up by buying bottled water or waiting in long queues at public fountains to fill makeshift jugs. “We ask that they at least supply water to educational centres. We cannot perform our prayers because of the lack of water. We can’t even shower our children“, lamented to local media a resident of Mamak district, east of the capital, where they have been without water supply for several days.
The municipal authorities attribute the situation to what they call the worst drought in decades: “2025 was a record drought. The volume of water feeding the dams fell to historic lows: 182 million cubic metres in 2025, compared to between 400 and 600 million in previous years,” defended Memduh Akçay, head of the Ankara Water Management Authority (ASKİ), noting that 2025 was the driest year in half a century. In statements reported by Turkish news channel NTV, Akçay further explained that, despite recent snowfalls, the snow has not melted and therefore there has been no new inflow of water to the city’s reservoirs.
The administration of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality has come under fire in recent weeks for its management, but the municipality deflects the blame onto climate change and the increase in population, which has doubled since the 1990s to nearly 6 million inhabitants. They also accuse the central government – Ankara is ruled by the CHP, the main opposition party – of not doing enough to provide the capital with more water resources, despite repeated requests from local authorities to do so.
Local businesses in despair over water cuts
Whatever the cause, the people of Ankara have long been suffering from breakdowns and water cuts that have led to low water pressure and shortages, especially in recent weeks. Most recently, water cuts were reported in 11 districts in central and eastern Ankara on 9 January, prompting protests, especially from local businesses, who complain of severe losses.
“Our water has been cut off for four days; today it has returned. During those four days this happened: a customer came in, we started to serve her, dyed her hair and when she went to wash it, there was no water. We tried to work by heating water that we bought in five-litre jugs…. Now we have water again, but we have no customers. This is the difficult situation we live in. In terms of cleanliness and hygiene, it’s a disaster,” a local hairdresser told the Anatolia news agency.
Again on Monday, residents of the Mamak and Çankaya districts were left without water supply for 12 hours, according to the official version of the authorities, because of a broken drinking water pipe. But this serious situation is not unique to Ankara: much of Turkey has been suffering from severe drought since last year; İzmir, the country’s third-largest city, for example, has also had daily water cuts periodically since last summer.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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