Major water scarcity issue in Istanbul

While various rumors were produced over the amount of water in the dams in Istanbul, a clear answer came from the most authoritative name to the issue. “Currently, our dams are just above 36 percent in terms of occupancy. Occupancy rate, which has been in a downward trend for a few weeks, has increased for the last 3-4 days.” said Ekrem İmamoglu, Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM).

“The frightening water scenario of Istanbul is related to the drought for 2 years in a row. We will see how this drought will affect the summer months with the barracks we will experience. At the moment, it is difficult to make a prediction about the winter. If there is a drought next year too, the foresight of our friends is that a water shortage awaits us in 2021. ” said Imamoglu, said in a statement.

Turkey has solved Istanbul’s water shortage by building dams, until now. However, the Melen project is at great risk. The project is important to Istanbul for the next year. The central government has not yet finished the project that started in 2012. Lastly, it turned out that the dam walls had cracked.

Mayor Ekrem İmamoglu met with Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli in Ankara on Tuesday, November 17. They discussed the latest situation of the Melen project.

In a statement made after the meeting, İmamoğlu gave information about the latest status of the project. İmamoglu said, “It seems that; Melen Dam will be finished in February 2023. When we look at the filling time, we talked that at the end of the same year, Istanbul residents will have a shape that both produces their own energy and meets their water capacity widely throughout the year ”.