Articles

Climate change is showing up clearly in Turkey - with summers hotter than they used to be. This presentation by IBS looks at the long-term data which feed this anxiety, as well as to the risks of Turkey running short of water. Provided as a pdf file.

It has been a good spring for the 4.6 million people of Ankara. The rains in the first six weeks of the year filled the capital’s seven dams with 136 million cubic metres of water, the equivalent of five months’ consumption. Further rains have caused memories to recede of the spectre of drought that stalked only two years ago. That May, reservoir levels were down to a mere 10% of their full capacity. The introduction of a series of emergency measures helped the city to muddle through until March 2008 and the connection of Ankara to the Kesikköprü Dam on the Kizilirmak River 128 kilometres away. This was a measure originally planned for the 2020s, but it has given Ankara the same respite from anxiety that Istanbul has also been living.

In March this year, Istanbul’s dams were 90% full, over twice the 38% level of a year earlier. The water they contained, 718 million cubic metres, was equivalent to 13 months’ consumption, meaning that it could host March’s 5th World Water Forum without qualms. And the city, in 2000 connected to the rivers of the Istranca mountains on the Bulgarian border, is now also linked to the Melen River, 182 kilometres to its west. Phase 1 of the $1.2 billion Melen project was completed in October 2007 and brings 270 million cubic metres per year of water to the city. Phases 2 and 3 will bring this figure to 1,200 million, and allow Istanbul to meet its needs to 2040. The $1 billion plus annual budget of the city’s Iski has finally borne fruit.