The Final Declaration of the Water Council was held at Beştepe Congress and Culture Center in Ankara…
Speaking at the event, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli said, “Water is more than two letters and two elements. Soil wants water, tree wants water, mankind wants water. Life emerged from water and every living thing that came to life first welcomed water. There is value in every drop of water, life in every drop. For this reason, many civilizations throughout history have chosen their settlements around water resources and have tried to manage these resources. Societies that protect water resources and manage them correctly have strengthened their civilizations and increased their agricultural production and power. Those who do the opposite have disappeared from the stage of history,”
Mentioning that the pressure on water is gradually increasing, Pakdemirli explained, “We are left with water resources that are decreasing, polluted and even reaching the limit of depletion in some regions, with the consumption approach reaching an unlimited dimension. Unfortunately, half of the world’s wetlands have already disappeared. Today, 1 out of 10 people in the world does not have access to drinking water and 3 out of 10 people do not have access to clean water. It is estimated that more than half of the world’s population will be at risk of dehydration by 2050.”
“Turkey is in the group of countries suffering from water stress”
Stating that climate change negatively affects the water cycle, Pakdemirli noted, “We are witnessing heavy rains and floods on the one hand and heat waves and droughts on the other. The number of natural disasters such as floods, storms and droughts in the world has risen 5 times in the last 50 years. Every year, new temperature records are broken. We are now experiencing a drought almost every 5-6 years.”
Emphasizing that Turkey is in the group of countries suffering from water stress with the amount of water per capita, Minister Pakdemirli concluded:
“To feed our population in 2050, we will need 60 percent more food production than today and 15 percent more water for this production. On the other hand, we are in the Mediterranean basin and it is a fact that we will feel the effects of climate change more intensely and more severely than in many countries. For this reason, we must put resource efficiency first, direct our water in the right direction, plan production according to water and make saving a priority. In order not to make our children need a drop of water, we should keep our water at the center and embrace it like a homeland.”