Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ibrahim Yumaklı emphasized Türkiye's dedication to preserving water resources efficiently, highlighting significant investments during the 86th Governors' Meeting of the World Water Council hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, featured World Water Council President Loic Fauchon and representatives from various countries on Saturday.
Yumaklı said: "Humanity faces many global challenges, including political difficulties, humanitarian crises, climate change, water scarcity, food crises, increasing energy needs, environmental pollution, and epidemics." He highlighted Türkiye's resilience in the face of natural disasters, citing the earthquake disaster that struck 11 cities with a population of 14 million last February. "We quickly repaired the damages, ensuring our people had access to clean water promptly. Such disasters remind us of the importance of coordination and cooperation to prevent and prepare for emergencies," Yumaklı remarked.
He underscored Türkiye's commitment to providing access to clean water for everyone, stating, "We are taking more determined steps than ever." Yumaklı also highlighted the increasing global focus on water-related issues and Türkiye's active participation and contribution to activities of the World Water Council.
Yumaklı highlighted the increasing impact of global warming and climate change in Türkiye, particularly due to its location in the Mediterranean Basin and its status as a water-stressed country with only 1,313 cubic meters of usable water per capita. He underscored Türkiye's vulnerability to these changes and the importance of proactive measures.
"Over the past 21 years, Türkiye has implemented more than 10,000 projects, investing TL 2.4 trillion (approximately $80 billion) to address these challenges. This includes establishing drinking water facilities, flood protection systems and wastewater treatment facilities. The focus has also been on building underground dams to enhance water resources," he said.
Yumaklı emphasized the need for efficient water use, highlighting that farmers bear half the cost of maintaining individual pressurized irrigation systems. He warned that without such investments, Türkiye could face water scarcity by 2030.
"To address these challenges, Türkiye is committed to fulfilling its global and regional responsibility for equitable, reasonable, and effective water use and protection. Legal reforms and infrastructure investments have been made in the past quarter-century to better manage water resources," Yumaklı remarked.
He outlined four main objectives: promoting the use of alternative water resources, adopting efficient technologies in agriculture, industry, and individual water use, improving water usage habits, and engaging stakeholders and water users through workshops, training, and awareness campaigns.
According to statistics, the agricultural sector accounts for 77% of water usage in Türkiye. To address this, water has been placed at the center of national agricultural production planning through amendments to the Agricultural Law.
Stating that Türkiye believes that water unites countries and people, not separates them, Yumaklı said, "With this understanding, we continue our work in the field of water beyond our borders. I would like to underline once again that we share a common responsibility in the face of water problems and crises and that we need to take action together. "
Yumaklı emphasized that they provide training, financial and technical assistance in the water sector to many countries in different parts of the world, especially African countries, with the aim of achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals globally.
"We attach great importance to the equitable, reasonable and effective use of water with our neighbors," he said.
Yumaklı pointed out that water goes beyond borders and said that Türkiye has five transboundary river basins and the water resources in these basins constitute approximately 40% of the country's water resources.
Yumaklı said, "As a country that is both an upper and lower riparian country, we attach great importance to continuing our dialogue and cooperation with our neighbors on the basis of equitable, reasonable and effective use of water. Cooperation in the field of transboundary waters is based on scientific facts for each river basin, the unique characteristics of the basin and "It is a complex process that requires special solutions to be produced between riparian countries, taking into account the needs."
Stating that the fair use of transboundary water resources by all basin countries is of great importance, Yumaklı noted that cooperation is made through knowledge, experience and technology transfer and joint technical projects are developed based on the principle of mutual benefit for the protection and use of water resources in transboundary basins.
World Water Council President Loic Fauchon also stated that they love Türkiye and Istanbul very much and expressed his pleasure to be here.
After the speeches, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Yumaklı and Fauchon.
