Our Lakes and Wetlands Can Be Saved by Basin Based Protection, Not by Talking
In the Work Programme of the Action Plan, quality and quantity improvement works in Natural Lakes will be initiated starting from 2017 and will be completed by 2023.
Decrease in precipitation and increase in temperatures also have an effect on the drying up of our wetlands and lakes. However, this effect is not decisive. What is decisive is our inability to adopt an integrated management model in water management at the basin scale, including our wetlands and lakes. In water management, we have a multi-headed and fragmented structure with a lack of coordination. Due to legal and institutional deficiencies, we cannot adequately protect and manage our wetlands in terms of quantity and quality.
Our wetlands are adversely affected by unplanned management, inefficient use of surface waters and excessive and uncontrolled withdrawal of groundwater. In addition, water collection structures located in the basins of wetlands and domestic, industrial and agricultural pollution also affect our wetlands very negatively in terms of quality and quantity. We can say that weaknesses in water management play a decisive role in the drying up of our lakes and wetlands.
We have 122 registered wetlands
There are 122 registered wetlands in our country. 22 of these are protected within the scope of Ramsar. Management plans are being made for our wetlands, but management plans for all wetlands could not be completed. This is a deficiency. However, more important than this is the integration of the management plans of wetlands with the basin protection and basin management plans prepared at the river basin scale. Sustainable management of wetlands cannot be realised individually unless an integrated management approach is established at the basin scale.
River Basin Management and Lake and Wetlands Action Plans are ready
In 2014, the National Basin Management Strategy Document, which includes plans for the years 2014-2023, entered into force. In 2019, the National Water Plan was published. In addition, Basin Protection Action Plans, Basin Master Plans and River Basin Management Plans were prepared and measures to be taken on basin and sub-basin basis were determined in line with these plans.
The Lakes and Wetlands Action Plan (2017-2023) was published in 2017, which is directly related to lakes and wetlands. The inventory of lakes in our country was completed with the Wetland Inventory, Management Plan Preparation and National Wetland Inventory Sub-project carried out by Nature Conservation and National Parks. In the Lakes and Wetlands Action Plan, lists of lakes and wetlands to be worked on were determined by taking into consideration the lakes within the scope of this project and the lakes within the scope of the ‘Project for Determining Sensitive Areas and Water Quality Targets on Basin Basis in Turkey’ carried out by the General Directorate of Water Management.
Protection should be basin-based
In 2017, in the Action Plan Report published by the General Directorate of Water Management, it was stated that in the management studies of the lakes so far, certain distances have been worked for the protection of the lakes and it was stated that ‘in this case, unsuccessful results are obtained in improving the water quantity and quality of the lakes’. It is also stated that ‘All actions in the action plan will be implemented based on the water body and basin boundary of natural lakes’.
This statement in the report clearly reveals why our lakes cannot be protected. In the work programme of the Lakes and Wetlands Action Plan, which was prepared in order to eliminate the existing deficiencies, the works to be carried out are divided into three main categories as identification, monitoring and improvement. In the Action Plan Work Programme, quality and quantity improvement works in Natural Lakes were to be initiated as of 2017 and to be completed by 2023, but no results were obtained. The multi-headed and fragmented nature of water management played a role in this. The fact that the implementation institutions of our water management at the basin scale have not been fully formed constitutes the biggest difficulty in implementation. In addition, the budget allocated for the protection and rehabilitation of our wetlands is insufficient. However, before this, the institutional capacities of the institutions that will use that budget in the most appropriate way should be strengthened.
Climate change is also effective.
Turkey is a country located in a semi-arid climate zone. In fact, we are a country of regional droughts under the influence of climate change. Climate change adversely affects our lakes and wetlands with decreasing precipitation and increasing temperatures and evaporation. However, human and management factors are decisive in this regard.
We are waiting for answers from three institutions for the status of our lakes and wetlands
In order to protect our wetlands, it is necessary to raise public awareness. For this purpose, information should be provided in a healthy way and activities that will create social awareness should be given importance. At the end of September last year, the news that ‘186 of 240 lakes in Turkey have completely dried up’ was headlined in most of the print media. As the Water Policy Association, we did not make any comment when asked about this issue, because we did not want to speculate on the issue without any official data.
We asked the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSİ), the General Directorate of Water Management and the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, which are authorised on this issue, about this situation by official letter. However, we did not receive any response from these three institutions. Therefore, our statements on wetlands were mostly aimed at solving this problem. The protection of our lakes and wetlands in our country is realised not through speculation, but by adopting a rational, planned, efficient and participatory water management approach. In addition, an official statement should have been made to the claims that 186 of our 240 lakes have completely dried up. Failure to do so leads to insufficient knowledge of the facts about our lakes and wetlands and the measures being taken.
Statements should be based on information, but it is difficult to access healthy data.
As in other issues in our country, it is very difficult to access healthy data for the studies to be carried out on water management. There are major problems in sharing the necessary data with universities, relevant chambers and non-governmental organisations.
In our country, there is a need for healthy, continuous standard data for the studies to be carried out on water management, including our wetlands. In addition, we should carry out our efforts to raise social awareness through analyses and training activities based on healthy information.
With the studies carried out, we have made an inventory of wetlands and registered all our wetlands with the "National Wetland Management Information System (SAYBİS) ’. Now we should prioritise conservation and rehabilitation works. Because our wetlands can be saved not by talking but by protecting them. This protection should be done on a basin scale with a participatory management approach.
