Minister: Turkey's largest cities have enough water for only a few months

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The three largest cities of Turkey have sufficient water resources for only a few months, according to Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli.

İstanbul, the largest city of Turkey, Ankara, the capital and the second-largest city, and İzmir, have water resources for three months, five months and five-and-a-half months respectively, the minister said in a response to a parliamentary question by an opposition deputy.

The fill rate in İstanbul's dams is 27 percent and is expected to increase with a rainy period in the coming months, said the minister.

The fill rate of the dams is 13.1 percent in Ankara and 37.1 percent in İzmir, he said.

"If no sufficient rain falls for the remainder of this year, 2020 could be the driest year in the last five years," Pakdemirli noted.

The rainfall between January and November was 3.7 percent lower than the average of a long time, he added.

The provinces with the most rainfall in 2020 were Rize, Trabzon, Giresun, Artvin and Şırnak and with the least rainfall were Kırşehir, Kırıkkale, Çorum, Ankara and Yozgat, according to the minister. (DŞ/VK)