Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (ISKI), a well-established organization of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), laid the foundation of the project that will increase the capacity of the Cumhuriyet Drinking Water Treatment Facility in order to ensure uninterrupted and hygienic water supply to the city in the future and today.
“OUR DAMS SEEN THE LOWEST LEVEL OF THE LAST 22 YEARS LAST YEAR”
Emphasizing that the water issue is an issue that should never be neglected for Istanbul, Mayor İmamoğlu said, “Meeting the water needs of a city like Istanbul is a big issue and a necessity. "At the same time, as the impact of the climate crisis we are experiencing in the world grows on our city, of course, the measures we will take and the projects we will carry out regarding water supply become much more important."
Underlining that Istanbul has had a water issue throughout its history, İmamoğlu said, “Our city is not a city with a huge river flowing through the middle. "Our city actually has the principles of meeting its needs by collecting water and rain, reserving it and presenting it to the city," he said. Sharing the information that the occupancy rate in the dams supplying water to the city saw the lowest levels in the last 22 years last year, İmamoğlu said, “Of course, this trend is not specific to last year only. This is a period that can happen to us at any time. Unfortunately, our country and our world are highly affected by the climate crisis. And unfortunately, our country is one of the countries that do some problematic work regarding sensitivity on this issue. It is a great responsibility of all of us to fix and improve this. We must face science. You cannot solve any problem by turning your back on science. You cannot solve the problem by ignoring the facts. Here we are, exactly the opposite; We describe our journey with science, people who know this field, and institutions and organizations that have experienced the highest level of technical application. We take Istanbul's water issue seriously. In this respect, we work with a long-term perspective. Our very intense projects and investments continued in this direction for 5 years. “It will continue from now on.” he said.
MELEN DAM AND CANAL DRAW ATTENTION TO ISTANBUL
İmamoğlu stated that Istanbul has two issues that need to be paid attention and known, within the framework of this issue, which will deeply affect our lives, and said: “One of them is the fate of the Melen Dam, which our General Manager also expressed. Another one is the Canal Istanbul issue, which is unfortunately insisted upon and those who express this every day during the election periods experience, in quotation marks, 'loss of memory'. These two issues are critical for Istanbul. These two issues should never be neglected and followed for Istanbul; Two projects, one of which should be completed immediately and a table should be established with a high level of cooperation, and the other should never be brought through the doors of Istanbul. In this respect, the Melen Dam process, which started with the decision of the Council of Ministers in 1989 and was taken as an important step in finding a permanent solution to Istanbul's water problem, was the most important decision made in the last 20 years, and its foundation was laid in the early 2010s, and was completed in 2016. "While it should have been announced that the opening of the Melen Dam will take place, unfortunately, when we took over the task and examined it, some critical project mistakes were made, and the completed dam body became unusable with cracks at the highest level, and its fate has become uncertain as of today," he said.
