Cities Are Flooded. Who is Responsible for Rainwater?

In Turkey, the rapid increase in urban population and expansion of settlement areas, climate change and increasing pollution necessitate a legal and institutional reassessment of the provision of certain services such as water and wastewater management and storm water removal. 

Climate change in particular has brought about irregularities in the rainfall regime of many cities in Turkey. As a result, the rainfall that a city should receive in a certain period falls in a very short time and in a sudden manner, and infrastructure facilities have become unable to handle this intensity. In many metropolitan municipalities and especially in urban areas, flood disasters have started to occur frequently. For this reason, it has become important and a priority to eliminate the uncertainties in local legislation on stormwater management, especially in metropolitan municipalities. 

Is storm water removal the duty of SU-Kİs?

In terms of local legislation, according to Law No. 2560, it is stipulated that the duty of "storm water removal" shall be carried out by water and sewerage administrations. On the other hand, it is also regulated as a "condition" that the cost of all investments made for this purpose must be covered by the "relevant municipalities" within the scope of the same legislation. However, in the two-tier metropolitan administration model, there is no clarity as to whether the "relevant municipalities" will be district municipalities or metropolitan municipalities. In practice, it has been determined that the cost of rainwater removal is taken from the district municipalities by some administrations and from the metropolitan municipality by some administrations, and even some administrations have classified the areas of responsibility of the district municipality and the metropolitan municipality, and the cost of rainwater removal is taken from both administrations based on this distinction.

The need for discrete systems is increasing 

The removal of rainwater, which has recently become more important due to changes in the rainfall regime, has necessitated the construction of a separate transmission system for rainwater in many cities.

It is important to what extent metropolitan municipalities have implemented the "separate system", which has become mandatory in accordance with the legislation on rainwater harvesting.  In the "Comparative Evaluation Study among Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Administrations" conducted by the Water Institute of Turkey in 2022, it was stated that 7 water and sewerage administrations had completely switched to a separate system in the light of the data shared by 24 water and sewerage administrations, and it was noted that the average separate system rate among 24 administrations was 59% (SUEN, 2022: 129). When compared with the data of previous years, it is observed that no significant progress has been made in this area.

In addition, no information is provided on whether the said ratio is the ratio of the 24 metropolitan municipalities within the provincial territorial boundary or not, based on the provision of services within the provincial territorial boundary with the Law No. 6360. Within the framework of all these explanations, it has become clear that the "split system" implementation is currently inadequate. 

Moreover, it is observed that the ratio of the resources allocated by the competent authorities for the removal of storm water to budget expenditures is quite low, and in this context, it is seen that the fulfillment of this task is not given enough importance in strategic documents and in the budget. 

These explanations make it clear that much work remains to be done in this regard.

Service disrupted if uncertainty persists 

In addition to creating a financing model for the disruption of the service to be provided in this regard, the uncertainty regarding duties and responsibilities should be clarified as soon as possible. 

The academic studies on this subject include the following explanations (Alıcı 2020). 

"In the Law No. 2560, which entered into force in 1981, the task of rainwater removal was assigned to water and sewerage administrations. However, although it is stipulated that the cost of the investments made is to be collected from the relevant municipalities, over time, there have been hesitations as to whether the "relevant municipalities" will be district municipalities, metropolitan municipalities or both. The Ministry of Interior, in its opinion, concluded that the "relevant municipalities" were district municipalities. However, administrative jurisdictions later ruled that the relevant municipality is the metropolitan municipality responsible for infrastructure. The Ministry of Interior changed its opinion according to this case law. In the audits conducted by the Court of Accounts at the same time and on the same subject, two different opinions were reached. In 2016, one audit report concluded that the relevant municipality was a district municipality, while another report stated that the relevant municipality was a metropolitan municipality. However, in practice, it was also found that the district municipality, metropolitan municipality or both were addressed by the water and sewerage administrations. The Court of Accounts later held metropolitan municipalities responsible as the relevant municipality for the removal of rainwater based on the decision of administrative judicial authorities. On the other hand, in the audits carried out by the Court of Accounts in the case of water and sewerage administrations, it was also observed that the expenses incurred for the removal of rainwater and the rehabilitation of streams were evaluated as a whole."

Finally, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change's General Directorate of Local Governments' opinion dated 6 12 2022 states;

"It is among the duties of metropolitan municipalities and water and sewerage administrations to carry out all kinds of services regarding water, sewerage (wastewater), improvement of streams and removal of rainwater within the borders of metropolitan municipalities, to establish, have established, operate and operate the necessary facilities for these, district municipalities do not have any duties, powers and responsibilities in this regard, the duties of Water and Sewerage Administrations and Metropolitan Municipalities are clearly stated in the law, in this context, the duties regarding infrastructure services and rainwater removal are respectively in Metropolitan Municipality and Water and Sewerage Administrations,

On the other hand, it is considered that it would not be possible to hold the metropolitan district municipalities, which are not assigned any duty by the Law, responsible for the phrase "relevant municipalities" in Article 25 of the Law No. 2560."

When these opinions are evaluated, it is seen that the ambiguity in the wording of "relevant municipality" in Law No. 2560 regarding the removal of rainwater has been partially eliminated in line with the opinions of the relevant authorities and judicial decisions. However, in accordance with the principle of "certainty of administrative activities", it would be beneficial to clarify the issues in Law No. 2560 that cause uncertainty with a legal regulation. 

Uncertainty between DSİ and the Metropolitan Municipality over stream rehabilitation 

On the other hand, in the special legislation of DSİ and the metropolitan municipality, "rehabilitation of streams" is a duty assigned to both administrations. This overlapping of duties may cause delay or indifference in the performance of the service, as well as the result that the same duty may be performed by different legal entities at the same time and place. 

 Article 2 of the Law No. 6200 on DSI defines the duties and powers of DSI as follows To create protective facilities against flood waters and floods, to make improvements in rivers and to make them navigable when necessary; To ensure the operation of the above-mentioned, including the operation, maintenance and repair of the facilities, to carry out experience, statistics, research and all kinds of stabilization works, including the works written in the above paragraphs, and to carry out all kinds of studies and projects of the above-mentioned works, including the type and character of the soil, the products to be grown and the agricultural economic benefits, and to establish enterprises to ensure the operation of the enterprises from the facilities that the general directorate has made or established."

Article 7, paragraph 'r' of the Metropolitan Municipality Law No. 5216 on the rehabilitation of streams states: "To carry out water and sewerage services, to establish, have established and operate dams and necessary facilities for this purpose; to rehabilitate streams". 

In fact, without a clear legal basis, the task of rehabilitation of streams is becoming a de facto duty performed by water and sewerage administrations.  There is a widespread belief that this task should be gathered under the management of the water and sewerage administration.

However, "After the borders of the Metropolitan Municipality were extended to cover all provincial borders with the Law No. 6360, the service area of the municipalities has expanded considerably. For this reason, it has become very difficult for many metropolitan municipalities to maintain these services with their current facilities and capabilities. Therefore, this issue should be addressed and resolved in a way that does not create confusion of authority.

One-stop planning and implementation is necessary 

If the Metropolitan Municipalities Water and Sewerage Administrations plan, construct, operate and repair water supply networks, wastewater, stormwater removal and stream rehabilitation from a single source, these works and operations will be carried out in an integrated manner. 

 As a matter of fact, as a result of the integrated planning and construction of many infrastructure services by the same institution with a legal arrangement that will not allow any confusion of authority in this regard; investment costs will be reduced, thus public resources will be used more economically and efficiently. 

In the event that a regulation is made to ensure that these infrastructure services are managed by water and sewerage administrations from a single source, it may also be possible to increase the current share transferred from general budget tax revenues. 

In conclusion, climate change, pollution, population growth and migration to urban areas continue to exert pressure on water and wastewater management. The uncertainties that the management will face are increasing. For this reason, both the overlapping of duties and authorities among relevant institutions and inadequacies in institutional infrastructure prevent effective and efficient service delivery. 

There are great benefits in the rapid implementation of legal arrangements and institutional capacity building efforts to eliminate this situation. 

References

Alıcı V.O, Işıldaklı B. (2020) The Task of Rainwater Removal in Metropolitan Municipalities Journal of International Management, Educational and Economics Perspectives 8 (2) (2020) 125-139

SU-EN (2022) Comparative Performance Evaluation among Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Administrations June 2022. Istanbul