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Water resources management, problems and solutions for Turkey

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 WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT, PROBLEMS
AND SOLUTIONS FOR TURKEY

Belgin CAKMAK
Prof., Ankara University Agricultural Faculty, Department of Farm Structures and Irrigation
06110, Dıskapı, Ankara,
e-mail:cakmak@[Link]

Yusuf UCAR
[Link] Demirel University Faculty of Agriculture Department of Farm Structures
and Irirgation Isparta.
e-mail: yucar@[Link]

Turhan AKUZUM
Prof., Ankara University Agricultural Faculty, Department of Farm Structures
and Irrigation ,06110, Dıskapı, Ankara,
e-mail:[Link]@[Link]

ABSTRACT

Parallel to population growth, food demand of people and consequently the wa-
ter demand of all sectors are also increasing. Agricultural yield and productivity
should be increased to provide a sustainable development and food security of the
increasing population. That brings the need for effective and sustainable water re-
sources utilization and enforces the 21st century countries to implement water saving
technologies in irrigation practices. Measures should also be taken in Turkey for
effective water resources utilization.
Water management can be defined as planned water resources development,
distribution and utilization. The works toward water resources development and to
put them into service of humanity was initiated thousands year ago and have con-
tinued up to now in an increasing fashion. In spite of all these works, physical struc-
tures constructed for water resources development are not sufficient. Together with
physical infrastructure to provide a balance between water potential and water de-
mand, new water management models taking all the economical, social and institu-
tional aspects into consideration and allowing beneficiary participation into man-
agement practices have been developed. Water management problems are generally
arisen every stage of water related issues ranging from water resources development
to field-scale water utilization practices. In this study, current state of water re-
sources, management and problems were discussed and recommendations were
made toward the solution of these problems.
Key Words: Water management, water resources, water quality
868 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

Agricultural water demand is increasing together with the growth in population

to meet the food demand of this increasing population. However, it is a well-known
reality that available water resources are limited. Beside the increase in agricultural
and domestic water demand, industrial water demand is also rapidly increasing
parallel to industrial developments and that creates a pollution problem over the
water resources. Main objectives of water resources management are to preserve
these limited water resources and to provide an effective utilization of these re-
sources in compliance with environmental aspects.
Annual total water consumption of Turkey at the beginning of the year 2003 was
40.1 km3. Of this water, 74% (29.6 km3) was used for irrigation practices, 15% (6.2
km3) for domestic purposes and 11% (84.3 km3) for industrial purposes. Sectoral
water utilization in Turkey was given in Table 1. When the annual sectoral water
consumptions of the sectors given in Table 1 were evaluated, it can be seen that agri-
culture had the greatest consumption among all sectors.
There is an excessive water use problem in irrigation practices of Turkey. Main
reason for this excessive water use in irrigation schemes is high water loses in net-
works. For example, while the net irrigation water requirement for both DSI (The
State Hydraulic Works)- operated and transferred schemes was 4589 m3/ha during
the year 2005, the delivered water was 10553 m3/ha [Anonymous, 2006]. These num-
bers indicate that more than twice of the required water was used. Under this cir-
cumstance, first of all water saving measures should be taken in agricultural sector.
Then, water distribution networks minimizing the water delivery and distribution
lose should be constructed. For this purpose, pressurized and piped systems should
be selected instead of open canal and canalet systems during the construction of new
irrigation systems. Based on 2005 data, classical systems are used in 83%, canalet
systems in 16% and piped systems in 1% of DSI-operated irrigation schemes; on the
other hand, classical systems are used in 42%, canalet systems in 50% and piped
systems in 8% of transferred irrigation schemes (Figure 1) [Anonymous, 2006].
Although more than 20 million ha land area is available for irrigation in Turkey,
it is most likely impossible to irrigate all this area with the water resources potential
to be allocated to irrigation. With the available water resources potential and the
implemented irrigation technologies, only 8.5 million ha of this land resource seem to
be irrigated. Beside all these, water saving and effective water use providing tech-
nologies like sprinkler and drip irrigation systems have to be used over the 63% of 13
million ha land area with land slopes of 0-6%. However, these technologies are cur-
rently being used only over the 10% of irrigated land areas [Ozturk, 2004].
BASIN WATER MANAGEMENT 869

Table 1. Sectoral water use distribution in Turkey [Anonymous, 2004]

Years Total water Potential Sectoral water use

consump- consump-
tion tion Irrigation Domestic Industrial
6 3 (%) % % %
(10 m ) 6 6 6
10 m 10 m 10 m
1990 30.600 28 22.016 72 5.141 17 3.443 11
1992 31.600 29 22.939 73 5.195 16 3.446 11
1998 38.900 35 29.200 75 5.700 15 4.000 10
2000 42.000 38 31.500 75 6.400 15 4.100 10
2003 40.100 36 29.600 74 6.200 15 4.300 11
2030 110.000 100 71.500 65 25.300 23 13.200 12

90 83
80
70
60 50
50 DSİ-managed
42
%

40 Transferred
30 16
20
8
10 1
0
Classical Canalet system Piped system
system

Figure 1. Irrigation systems in Turkey

Soil-plant-water relations and their effects on mankind and environment are not
seriously taken into consideration in irrigated lands. Since the producers are not
sufficiently trained, they tend to use excessive water and consequently drainage,
high water table, salinity and alkalinity problems are arisen [Kendirli and Cakmak,
2005].
In Turkey, new lands are opened for irrigation in one hand; irrigated lands
which were put into implementation by high investments are rapidly spoiled up and
polluted due to improper agricultural and irrigation practices. Most of the land areas
opened for irrigation is faced to salinity and alkalinity problems. Improper and ex-
cessive fertilization spoiled up soil-plant-water balance and the soil texture with
nitrate and nitrite residues and also polluted the ground water resources. Uncon-
scious irrigation practices have caused soil salinity and decreased the ground water
quality [Cakmak and Kendirli, 2002].
870 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT

2. LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

There are more ten central or local institutions and organizations authorized in
water resources utilization and preservation. Organizations and institutions such as
Ministries of Environment, Forestry, Culture, Public Works, Energy and Natural
Resources (General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works, Electrical Works Research
Administration), Agriculture are carrying out their responsibilities in compliance
with the legal regulations and their institutional frameworks.
Although several organizations are authorized in water management issues in
Turkey, there is not a single wide-scoped water law. Water resource utilization rights
are significantly complex in Turkey due to high number of related bodies and rele-
vant laws and regulations. In spite of legal initiations for better management and
utilization of water resources, this issue has been dealt with by old practices and
methods. Especially in the case of personal allocation of public waters, traditional
right of ‘allocation’ is still being applied by Turkish courts.
641st article of Turkish Public Law assigns the utilization rights of public waters
to the state. This law also envisages the implementation of special regulations about
the general utilization of these waters. However, a regulation specifying the special
conditions related to general utilization of public waters have not been prepared yet.
6200 numbered DSI-establishment law authorize this organization with the gen-
eral management and utilization responsibility of all water resources of Turkey.
However, neither DSI nor any other organization has the authority to allocate the
water resource utilization rights to any special purpose or project. Then, water alloca-
tion and utilization approach become invalid. Farmer rights of water use and in
irrigations and relevant problems are put into coverage of legal regulations. General
practice in DSI irrigations is to the right of water use to the farmers having access to
canal even farmer’s land is not planned to benefit from that system.
It has been known for several years that there are too many regulations related
to surface waters and there are several difficulties brought by the issues not covered
by the regulations. However, proper and wide-scoped laws and regulations meeting
all the needs has not put into effects yet. Groundwater has fewer problems than
surface waters. 167 and 178th law put into effect in addition to Public Law put the
ground waters under guarantee of state ownership. As a result of this, although
spring waters are part of same hydrological cycle with ground waters, they are given
the ownership of the landlord where they come to surface. That is why, legal regula-
tions covering both surface and ground waters should be prepared and they all
should be gathered under a single law.
BASIN WATER MANAGEMENT 871

3. WATER RESOURCES AND UTILIZATION IN TURKEY

Total land resources of Turkey is 77.95 million hectares and 28.05 million
(35.98%) of it used as agricultural lands. While the irrigable land resource is 25.85
million hectares, economically irrigable land area is about 8.5 million hectares (Figure
2).
It is taken into consideration that 7.9 million hectares of 8.5 million economically
irrigable lands could be irrigated with surface water and the rest with ground water
resources. It was envisaged that 6.5 million hectares would be irrigated by DSI, 1.5
million hectares by General Directorates Rural Affairs (GDRS) and 0.5 million hec-
tares by public irrigations. By the end of the year 2004, a total of 4.9 million hectare
land area is being irrigated (Figure 3).
Annual average precipitation in Turkey is 642.6 mm and water equivalent of it is
about 501 billion m3. Technically and economically available surface and ground
water potential is about 110 billion m3. Of this potential, 95 billion m3 comes from in-
born rivers, 3 billion m3 from out-coming rivers and 12 billion m3 comes from ground
water resources. Basin-based annual water potential exhibits great variations.

Total Surface Area of Turkey

77.95 Milyon Hectares

Non-agricultural Lands Agricultural Lands

49.90 Milyon Hectares 28.05 Milyon Hectares

Economically Irrigable Lands

8.5 Milyon Hectares

Currently Irrigated Lands

4.9 Milyon Hectares

Figure 2. Soil and Irrigated Land Resources of Turkey

P u b lic irrig a tio n s

1 .0 m i llio n h a
(2 0 % )

DSİ
2 .8 m ill io n h a
57%
GDRS
1 .1 m il lio n h a
23%

Figure 3. Distribution of land areas opened for irrigation by the end of the year 2004
872 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT

4. WATER RESORUCES MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Water resources management can be defined as the implementation of best prac-

tices for an effective qualitative and quantitative planning, development, distribution
and utilization of water [Akuzum and Cakmak, 2006]. These management practices
should provide sustainability beside the multi-purpose water utilization. Water re-
sources management problems can be seen at every stage from the development of
water resources and field-scale water utilization.

4.1. Physical Problems

Currently irrigated land area of Turkey is about 4.9 million hectares and that
constitutes almost 16% of total irrigable land resources of 26 million hectares. Kanber
[2006] determined the nation-wide net irrigation water need within an average crop-
ping pattern for technically and economically irrigable lands as 96 km3/year and
296.5 km3/year, respectively. In this case, currently available water resources of Tur-
key are sufficient to irrigate 8.5 million ha land area. Since the entire resources are
not utilized currently, sufficient water available on time for all sectors. However,
Turkey may face to serious water problems in near future. Measure like deficit irriga-
tion practices and implementations in agriculture, irrigation planning based on water
deficit conditions and waste water re-use practices may be implemented to meet the
water demands of the future. Deficit irrigation can provide several benefits in meet-
ing the water demand of the sectors. But, new water resources should be developed
and domestic and industrial waste and drainage waters should be re-used for a con-
stant solution for water problems.
Annual average domestic waste water potential of Turkey is about 3.7 km3 and
industrial waste water potential is 3.0 km3. It is seen that waste water potential of
Turkey is not sufficient. These small numbers are mostly due to lack of reliable data.
Waste waters are mostly not treated and released to receiving bodies. Alternative
water resources should be developed to eliminate the water problems. Drainage and
see water can also be used for this purposes. Researches are currently being con-
ducted to use domestic waste waters, see water and drainage waters for agricultural
purposes. These studies should be initiated and widespread all over the nation in
Turkey [Kanber, 2006].
Since the land consolidation, leveling and drainage like in-land development
services are not completed over the land resources, a sustainable water management
is not achieved. Irrigation canals, canalets, architectural structures and gauging facili-
ties are exposed to external conditions (precipitation, flood, wind, ice, temperature)
and damages caused by the users, they get out of order in short time and they re-
BASIN WATER MANAGEMENT 873

quire maintenance and repair. Since there are intermediate storages in canal net-
works and night irrigations are not made during the irrigation season except the
peak seasons some water diverted to network flows to discharge. Excessive sedimen-
tation or damages occur in canals due to lack of disposal holding structures (distilla-
tion basins, filters or grids and etc.), upper and lower flood passes and etc. architec-
tural structures. That is why, significant expenses were made for cleaning, mainte-
nance and repair of the canals and the other structures [Kocak and Zayıf, 2005]. Be-
cause of all the above reasons, closed piped systems should be preferred in new
irrigations to be established.
Since all the facilities are over the surface in surface irrigation systems, farmers
can easily access and damage the gates, gauging and the other facilities. Because
architectural structures are designed for full capacity in some irrigation schemes,
canals are operated at full capacity and that causes waste of water and energy in
irrigation. Farmers tend to use illegal ground water wells in irrigations with insuffi-
cient water resources and that reduces the irrigation efficiency [Cakmak and Aku-
zum, 2006].

4.2. Water Quality Problems

Domestic water is generally used for drinking, cooking, cleaning ant etc pur-
poses. Following are the standards for drinking water: EPA ( U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency) standards established to develop drinking water regulations for
public health preservation; the standard established by World Health Organization
(WHO) in 1958 and rearranged in 1993 including physical, chemical, bacteriological
and psycho-chemical specifications for drinking water; the European standard estab-
lished in 1978 to specify the psycho-chemical, toxic and microbiological parameters
for drinking waters; AWWA Water Quality Targets for treatment facility establish-
ment, operation, proper distribution and quality water supply for consumers; Turk-
ish Standards established in 1997 [Kendirli and Benli, 2001 ].
Agricultural water use causes some pollution problems for surface and ground
water resources. Water pollutants can be given as sediment, plant nutrition, soluble
salts, agricultural chemicals, toxic elements and pathogens. Chemicals delivered with
the irrigation water, fertilizers and pesticides can create a pollution threat [Cakmak
and Ozturk, 1995; Yıldırım and Cakmak, 1999]. These pollutions can be eliminated by
conscious fertilization and agricultural chemical applications of the farmers.
Pollution problem should be evaluated with possible pollutants. Water resources
should be basin-wide evaluated and the fact that pollutants affect the water quality
874 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT

of all basins should be taken into consideration. Available data to monitor the water
quality problems are not sufficient. Water quality monitoring and evaluation studies
are carried out by different organizations and each organization monitors different
parameters. That is why; gathered data cannot be sufficiently evaluated [Kendirli et
al., 2005].
Domestic and industrial waste water treatments have not seriously taken into
consideration in Turkey. The ratio of enterprises with a treatment facility is about 9%.
About 141 of 3215 municipalities have a sewage system and only 43 of them have a
treatment facility. GDRS has initiated works for natural treatment and re-use of do-
mestic waste water in rural areas. Such a beneficial project should be widespread
over the nation. Almost 98% of industrial facilities do not have a treatment facility
and currently operating ones are insufficient [Cakmak and Akuzum, 2006].
Water pollution in rivers, lakes and seas is rapidly increasing parallel to popula-
tion growth, urbanization, industrialization, agricultural chemicals and fertilizers
[Yıldırım and Cakmak, 1999]. A water pollution problem has not seen yet in Euphra-
tes and Tigris Rivers due to low population intensity, low levels of industrialization
and extensive agricultural practices. However, water quality monitoring should be
intensified to cover up the possible problems to be arisen with the implementation of
GAP projects components.
Also, dimensions of water pollution and various consequent environmental
problems will increase due to increasing pesticide and fertilizer utilization in GAP
project area. For the elimination of these kinds of problems, farmers and implemen-
ters should be conscious and use unharmful and easily biodegradable pesticides
[Akuzum et al., 2001]. By the end of the year 2004, drainage and salinity problems
have arisen over 20 000 ha of currently irrigated 207 000 ha land area. It was also
thought that the region will face to serious salinity and pesticide pollution problems
over the project area.
Beside the surface waters, ground waters also under the threat of pollution.
However, ground waters are exposed to chemical and nuclear pollution later than
the surface waters. Ground water pollution can be defined as the bacteriological and
chemical quality spoil up of water to an extend making it unavailable for utilization.
In near future, environmental problems will increase and consequently surface wa-
ters will be polluted more and more and the vale of ground waters will increase.

4.3. Water Pricing Problems

Low water prices in Turkey are the leading factor causing excessive water use in
agriculture and consequent environmental problems. Currently applied water prices
are not sufficient to meet operation and maintenance costs. Water pricing in Turkey
BASIN WATER MANAGEMENT 875

is generally based on irrigated land area and type or irrigated crop. However, col-
lected water fees are most of the time less than the assigned amount. That is espe-
cially due to low late-payment fines of DSI law in state-operated schemes. Water fee
collection rates are higher in irrigation associations than DSI irrigations and that may
indicate the success of water pricing and fine system of irrigation associations [Cak-
mak et al., 2004].
Irrigation associations prepare an estimated budget before the irrigation season
and determine water prices based on regional conditions. Generally, land or crop-
based water pricing is also applied in associations. Based on the year 2001 data, wa-
ter fee was between 1.6-9.6 US$/day and average realized value was 3.4 US$/day.
Water fee collection rate for the same year was 57.9% [Cakmak et al., 2004].

4.4. Irrigation System Operation Problems

Unconscious water utilization in agriculture and old irrigation networks creates
an excessive water use in agriculture. Excessive water use decreases irrigation effi-
ciency and causes pounding, salinity and pollution problems. Entire irrigable area is
not able to be irrigated due to some reasons like insufficient water resource in irriga-
tion networks, high water table, topographical parameters, insufficiency of irrigation
facilities, fallow lands, and socio-economical factors. In some irrigation networks,
realized irrigation ratios were sometimes below 50%.
Irrigation ratio and irrigation efficiency indicating the water use efficiency in ag-
riculture are very low in Turkey. Irrigation efficiency is defined as the ratio of irriga-
tion water need to amount of water diverted from the source. Based on 2005 data,
irrigation efficiency in DSI-operated and transferred irrigation schemes are 23% and
59%, respectively. Excessive water is the most critical factor decreasing the irrigation
efficiency in Turkey. About 10553 m3/ha water applied in DSI-operated and trans-
ferred schemes and the realized irrigation efficiency was 43% [Anonymous, 2006].
For an optimum plant development, water should be applied at required
amount and time. The real amount diverted from the resource is more than plant
water requirement due to water loses along the line of conveyance from the source to
the plant (Figure 4). As it can be seen in Figure 4, delivered water was more than the
need. Ratio of delivered water to needed water is more than 1. The delivered water
was two or three times higher than the required amount. Main reason for this exces-
sive water delivery is high water loses both network and field level.
In classical irrigation systems, small irrigation plots and improper furrow and
border dimensions make the water management difficult, decrease irrigation effi-
ciency and cause high water loses. Field water application efficiency in furrow and
border strip irrigation methods is around 60% and it goes down to 50%
876 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT

16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Years

Irrigation water requirement (m3/ha) Diverted water (m3/ha)

a) DSI Irrigation Schemes

14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Years

Irrigation water requirement (m3/ha) Diverted water (m3/ha)

b) Transferred Irrigation Schemes

Figure 4. Irrigation water need and delivered water for the years 1995-2004 in Turkey

when the seepage, evaporation and operational loses are included. About 2 m3
water is used to meet 1 m3 crop water requirement.
Because of all the above circumstances, significant amounts of water is wasted;
distribution and drainage canals are constructed at high capacities and that brings an
extra cost for the systems; and extra energy is needed in case of pumping systems.
When the high water prices are added to all above items, significance of water saving
in irrigation becomes apparent [Kanber et al., 2005]. When the sprinkler and drip
BASIN WATER MANAGEMENT 877

irrigation methods are selected instead of classical methods, irrigation efficiencies

increase to 80% and 90%, respectively and that means 20% and 30% water saving,
respectively.
Agricultural land resources of Turkey are decreasing due to lack of land utiliza-
tion plans and increase in non-agricultural utilities. Utilization of agricultural lands
for non-agricultural purposes has reached to significant levels. Income increasing
measures for farmers should be taken; importance and priority should be given to
soil and water resources development investments.
Cropping patterns applied in irrigated lands exhibit great differences from the
planned patterns. Irrigation ratios are well below the design values. It negatively
affects the profitability of irrigation projects and farmers turns from irrigated agricul-
ture to dry agriculture. Market conditions, traditional farming practices, fluctuations
in agricultural inputs and unplanned production practices are the basic items reduc-
ing the profitability of irrigated agriculture [Kanber et al., 2005].
Farmers training is not sufficient in Turkey due to lack of effective farmer train-
ing services and they tend to excessive water use and this excessive water causes
significant waste of water via surface runoff, deep percolation and seepage loses. As
a result of these loses, irrigation efficiency decreases and several other problems such
as drainage, high water table, salinity and alkalinity problems are arisen. Irrigation
performance evaluation studies are the best indicator of water loses in irrigation
practices. It was determined that irrigation performance of several irrigation schemes
was very low [Kanber et al., 2004]. A well performance has not been reached yet in
any irrigation schemes and so application performances are low and water loses are
high.

4.5. Organizational Problems

Institutional organization for water resources integrated management in Turkey
is only available at central government level. However, for the issue of water quality
management, a similar coordination is not available among the relevant organiza-
tions so, coordination of all relevant bodies should be provided by taking a water
resource as a “whole”.
Burak et al., [1997] stressed out the approach that for water resources manage-
ment in Turkey, water should be considered as a natural part of ecosystem and a
substance with various utilizations based on its quality and quantity. They recom-
mended an ‘Integrated Water Resources Management’ depending on strategy of
‘user pays the cost’. Within this context, institutions and organizations responsible
for water management (DSI, Municipality Bank, GDRS, Ministries of Forestry and
Agriculture) should be re-organized. They also brought forward the need for legal
878 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT

regulations for an integrated management. The degree of state control over water
management in legal regulations, responsibilities, organization of control mecha-
nism, principles of ‘user pays, polluter pays, support the preservers’ were all stressed
out in Meric [2004].
Reliable, consistent and rational policies have not been developed yet in Turkey
for the allocation, preservation ad development of water resources. All of the current
laws and regulations relevant to water resources management assign entire respon-
sibility to the state and far a way from participation. Water users do not have any
role and responsibility. Responsibilities and authorities of institutions significantly
overlap each other and that brings out coordination and service problems.
“Irrigation Associations” operating large part of transferred irrigation schemes
are established based on “Association Type-Regulation” Of Ministry of Interior and
“1580 numbered Municipality Law (Articles 133-148)”. There is not such a law di-
rectly related to irrigation associations established in Turkey and regulatory works
are under construction on this issue under the title of “Water Users Associations”.
Regulations should be established to provide an effective inspection of irrigation
associations for their administrative and operative works.
Number of agricultural cooperatives established to provide the inputs needs of
farmers, market their products, establish various facilities, support the development
of agro-industry and increase employment opportunities have been increasing since
the foundation of Republic, however they haven’t sufficiently involved in economy
yet as their equivalents in EU countries [Inan et al., 2005]. Although there are about
8064 cooperatives dealing with various activities and they have over 5 million mem-
bers, cooperative business has not reached the desired levels in Turkey. Over 5 mil-
lion members is also a matter of discussion and there are several inactive members,
too. On the other hand, several farmers of agriculturally developed regions are
member of more than one cooperative. That is why; number cooperatives and their
members do not reflect enough the development of cooperative business in Turkey.
Most of the inactive cooperatives are the ones established without any need. On the
other hand, successful and always developing cooperatives were established for a
need and supported by their members. Then cooperative business should be sup-
ported by taking these successful ones as an example, instead of giving up this busi-
ness by taking the inactive and unsuccessful ones as an example [Inan et al., 2004].

5. RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Current legal framework relevant to water resources management in Turkey is

not sufficient for an integrated management. That is why, a legal regulation is
BASIN WATER MANAGEMENT 879

needed. Standards should be established based on both qualitative and quantitative

utilization purposes of water resources and all the gathered data should be collected
at a single center. Currently available laws and regulations should be gathered under
a single framework and a “water law” should be issued. The principle of “user pays”
should be adopted, and this principle should be involved in proposed water law.
Within the context of eighth five-year development plan, creation of an organ-
ized, highly competitive and sustainable agricultural sector taking all the economical,
social, environmental and international development aspects into consideration
within the frame of effective resource utilization was specified as the main objective.
For this purpose, enrichment of producer organizations and transfer of some state-
performed tasks to farmers’ organizations were specified in objective, principle and
policies sections. Some changes should be carried out in cooperative business regula-
tions in Turkey to comply with the new changes adopted in international cooperative
policies. That is why; currently available laws and regulations should be gathered
under a single framework.
Agricultural sector has the greatest share among the water user sectors of Tur-
key. So, the utilization of tools and technologies providing effective water utilization
in agriculture in well compliance with environmental regulations should be among
the prior objectives of the country. Re-use opportunities of drainage and waste wa-
ters should be developed and works toward this objective should be carried out.
Selection, design and implementation of best proper irrigation methods based
on land characteristics and implementation of proper irrigation programs will pro-
vide an effective water resource utilization and preservation. With the implementa-
tion of pressurized irrigation systems water loses and excessive water use and conse-
quent negative effects on environment will be prevented. Water pricing should be
based on volumetric consumption instead of crop-area basis.

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Genel Mudurlugu, DSİ İdari ve Mali İsler Daire Baskanlıgı, Basım ve Fotofilm
[Link]. 84s. Ankara.
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Burak, S., Duranyıldız, L, Yetis, U. 1997. Ulusal Cevre Eylem Planı: Su Kaynaklarının
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