The severe drought in Turkey, which is leaving the province of Bursa – the country’s fourth most populous – without water sources, is worsening. Following the complete drying up of the Nilüfer reservoir, the Doğancı reservoir – the city’s main source of drinking water and the last remaining one with water – has also reached 0% capacity.
Meanwhile, Turkish media report that authorities are working against the clock to transfer more water as an emergency measure from the Çınarcık reservoir, located south of the city of Bursa and with a capacity of 180 million cubic metres, although only half that amount is currently available.
The Nilüfer reservoir, which supplied water to the central districts of Nilüfer, Osmangazi and Yıldırım, as well as Gürsu, Kestel and Mudanya, has been completely dry since the end of September. As a consequence, the water level of the Doğancı reservoir – Bursa’s main water reservoir – which was below 7% of its capacity three weeks ago, has also dropped to zero.
Water cuts for 12 hours a day
Faced with this crisis, the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Water and Sewerage Administration (BUSKİ) implemented scheduled water cuts for 12 hours a day in several central districts since 1 October, with the aim of saving 100,000 cubic metres of water per day.
With these water cuts, the daily water demand of the city (of some 3 million inhabitants), which was 500,000 cubic metres, has been reduced to 400,000; of that volume, 40% came until now from the dams – Doğancı and Nilüfer, both now currently dry – and 40% from the springs and wells of Mount Uludağ, where engineers are having to drill to depths of up to 250 metres – 25 times more than normal – in order to extract groundwater.
The remaining 20% of Bursa’s water supply has so far come from the Çınarcık reservoir, but this is to be increased to provide emergency drinking water for the city. Recent rains and snowfall on Mount Uludağ have sparked some optimism among the authorities, who hope that the vital Doğancı reservoir will begin to recover in the coming days, and thus overcome the crisis caused by the extreme drought that Turkey has been experiencing in recent years.
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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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