The Turkish capital, Ankara, only has water supplies for a maximum of 180 days if there is no further rainfall, the Ankara Water and Sewerage Administration (ASKİ) has warned, urging city residents to take measures to save water in the face of an 80% drop in reserves.
According to Turkish media such as Karar, since mid-2024 there has been a drastic decline in rainfall in the province of Ankara, which has also not received enough snow in recent years, warned the general director of ASKİ, Memduh Aslan Akçay: ‘There has been no significant rainfall in our city this year either. It has not snowed in our city for almost two years. This, naturally, has had a negative impact on our water reserves,’ he said.
Akçay explained that in the first two months of 2024 the accumulated water reserves to supply the capital amounted to approximately 200 million cubic metres; however, during the same period this year, the accumulation of reserves has been reduced by 80%, to just 40 million cubic metres. Currently the flow of water into the reservoirs and dams that supply Ankara is not enough to cover demand, which together with the growing consumption of the population has seriously increased the problem.
Experts have recently warned that despite the rainfall during the last winter, the risk of drought conditions persists in Turkey, especially with the summer season approaching, and that urgent preventive measures are needed to avoid shortages and water cuts.
The problem is aggravated by unsustainable agricultural practices – agriculture accounts for around 75% of water consumption – but also by human consumption: Turkey is among the 10 countries that consume the most water in the world, occupying 9th place in a ranking led by New Zealand and the USA, while Spain and Mexico appear in 6th and 8th position, respectively; and within Turkey, Ankara has one of the highest per capita water consumptions in the country.
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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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