First woman Emine Erdoğan, a pioneer of the zero waste motion in Türkiye and the recipient of the “Climate and Development Leadership Reward,” lately referred to as on the general public to make use of water sources rigorously, because the reserves face the opportunity of operating out as a consequence of local weather change.
On her social media account, the primary woman highlighted on Sunday that the quantity of precipitation within the final three months has decreased by 40.6% and 31% in comparison with the identical time final yr, in accordance with the long-term knowledge, whereas Türkiye’s water sources are predicted to say no by 25% over the next century.
“Using water efficiently is a civic duty for all of us. The first step of our national struggle has already been taken with the Water Efficiency Campaign, which started under the leadership of our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Join us to fight the unseen disaster. Let’s conserve water together,” the primary woman wrote on Twitter.
Her attraction for the rational use of water got here just a few days after the official knowledge on the situation of the dams that provide Istanbul primarily but in addition different provinces, together with the western areas of Tekirdağ, Edirne and Kırıklareli, was shared.
According to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) and the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (ISKI) knowledge, the water stage within the dams, which rose to 89.68% final yr, dropped to 32.25% as of Friday due to inadequate rainfall.
While the dams and ponds that present water to the town have an accumulation quantity of 868,63 million cubic meters (mcm), the quantity of water has been measured on the stage of 280.18 mcm, the most recent knowledge revealed.
The knowledge shared raised issues that the buildup quantity registered on Friday was one of many lowest within the final decade. Professor Dr. Levent Kurnaz, from Boğaziçi University’s Climate Change and Policies Application and Research Center, urged dams regularly dropped their water ranges as there was not sufficient rain in Istanbul throughout the previous couple of months.
However, as per ISKI statistics performed for the final 10 years, dam occupancy charges, which used to range over time, confirmed one of many three weakest ranges within the interval talked about.
According to ISKI statistics, dam occupancy charges had been 64.28% in 2013, 35.44% in 2014, 73.15% in 2015, 60.81% in 2016, 55.55% in 2017 and 65.51% in 2018.
An occupancy of 86.86% was recorded in 2019, 39.31% in 2020, 19.47 in 2021 and 48.2% in 2022.
Kurnaz identified that regardless of being in the course of the winter, Istanbul has obtained little precipitation saying, “This is a serious problem for us.”
Highlighting that persons are accustomed to listening to warnings in regards to the environment friendly use of water, principally throughout the summer season months, Kurnaz acknowledged these warnings must be made for 12 months now.
Recalling {that a} related scenario occurred in 2021, when heavy rains started round Jan. 15 and that there have been no severe issues after that, Kurnaz mentioned: “If we head toward springs without receiving the expected rains, there will be serious water shortages because Istanbul has no water and the amount of water in the dams is decreasing day by day. The water level has dropped to around 32%, and if it continues like this, there will be a few water shortages. We may see a 20% decrease within a week. This is a grave issue for Istanbul.”
Meanwhile, professor. Dr. Aziz Akgül, the founding father of the Turkish Foundation for Waste Reduction (TİSVA), informed Anadolu Agency (AA) that Türkiye’s water sources “can only be self-sufficient with excellent water management and operation from a single source.”
Drawing consideration to the lower in precipitation, Akgül warned {that a} extreme disaster awaits the nation in 2050 or 2100. “To minimize this danger, our water resources must be managed very carefully,” he confused.
