THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
Related Articles
In our country, the average annual rainfall is 574 mm, but in the 2025 water year, it was 422.5 mm nationwide. According to the General Directorate of Meteorology, rainfall was 26% below normal and 29% below last year’s rainfall. The General Directorate of Meteorology announced that the water year rainfall across Türkiye has reached its lowest level in the last 52 years.
In 2025, rainfall decreased by 35% in Marmara and Central Anatolia, 28% in the Aegean region and over 60% in Southeastern Anatolia. However, it increased by over 20% in the areas around Sinop, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun and Trabzon provinces. In 2025, our country experienced widespread and very severe drought, except for the Central and Eastern Black Sea regions. The 2025 water year also coincided with the fulfillment of the long-standing prediction by climate scientists: “an increase in rainfall in the Black Sea region and a decrease in other regions.”
With water being a major topic of discussion in the year 2025, conducting a “water management assessment” will be beneficial for our future. The meteorological drought that began at the start of the 2025 water year evolved into hydrological and agricultural drought at the beginning of the irrigation season. Agricultural irrigation restrictions have been implemented in many provinces, primarily Aydın, Adana, Konya, Şanlıurfa, Mardin, Batman and Siirt. Later, planned water cuts began in İzmir, Çeşme, Ankara, Sakarya, Malatya, Bursa and Tekirdağ regions and these cuts are becoming more widespread and prolonged. In many provinces, dams have been completely emptied, and water management authorities have attempted to prevent planned water cuts by drilling numerous deep wells. Our invisible strategic resource, groundwater, has been excessively extracted, resulting in a decrease in its level and quality. During drought periods, the decrease in groundwater recharge and excessive extraction accelerates the decline in water levels and quality. This situation also has a high probability of increasing sinkholes. What we experienced in the past year has shown that water management has failed to analyze the risks at the beginning of the 2025 water year or is not prepared to manage them.
Dams are empty!
Data from the State Hydraulic Works (DSI) shows that in the Büyük Menderes Basin, the average water levels in dams have been gradually decreasing every year for the last 15 years. For the last 6 years, dams in the basin have been averaging only 4% full. Unfortunately, drought seems to have become entrenched in the Büyük Menderes. This situation necessitates significant incentives for our farmers and producers. Furthermore, it demonstrates the need for uncompromising basin-wide management to prevent deeper crises.
The drinking water dams of Ankara and İzmir provinces are completely empty and water is being drawn from dead space. The water levels in Istanbul’s lifeline dams, Terkos and Ömerli, have fallen to 18%. Water is being pumped to the European side of Istanbul from the Melen system at great cost.
Many of our dams and reservoirs have entered the new water year with empty tanks. For these dams and reservoirs to fill their tanks and return to normal operating schedules, the upcoming period requires excessive rainfall. Below-normal rainfall will result in the hydrological drought being carried over into the following year. In regions where the severity and frequency of regional droughts are rising, the continuation of this risk will worsen the situation. The agricultural frost, low rainfall and management deficiencies in 2025 also affected fruits, grains and legumes. These effects caused food inflation to skyrocket in September. The consequences of inflation are not just numbers; they also profoundly affect our food security by contributing to enhanced imitation and adulteration.
Our water security resilience is low; we are not ready to manage the risk!
The year 2025 reminded us once again that we need to manage increasingly severe and frequent drought periods effectively. For this, water management bodies must adopt an approach to best manage their existing water resources before seeking additional water. This requires an understanding beyond classical management models. In fact, the effects of climate change and the widespread water shortages we are experiencing have already rendered the classical understanding of water management obsolete. However, despite this, we haven’t fully transitioned to efficient water management beyond simply waiting for rain. We are stuck between trying to enact new legislation on water management and preparing planning reports.
The 2025 report reveals that our water security resilience is low. During times of crisis, communication between water management and users has proven insufficient for water conservation. We have experienced the effects of our unpreparedness for risk management through these shortages. Furthermore, we have experienced the impact of the disconnect between central and local governments in water infrastructure investments. The 2025 water management report shows that our water management needs radical reform. If we fail to understand this need and implement radical reforms in water management, we cannot prevent the problem from becoming chronic and evolving into widespread crises in the coming years.
By Dursun Yıldız,
Chair of the Water Policies Association
