Water Management Should be Restructured
An innovative strategic plan is needed to sustainably develop our water resources under changing conditions and to manage water services as public services. In addition to high technical capacity, long years of institutional memory will play an important role in the institutions that will implement this plan.
Changing and evolving conditions cause countries to change their plans, policies and strategies in many areas. This change naturally involves institutions as well. In the last 35 years, there have been many changes in the world that directly affect water management. We must manage these changes and the increasing pressures on water management by taking into account our social and national interests. Our country's water management has been in a period of legal and institutional transition for a long time. In this context, we need to restructure our water management on the basis of the new water management strategy. The cornerstones of this restructuring can be listed as River Basin Scale Planning, Effective Management at River Basin Scale, Effective Public Oversight, Rapid and Scientific Solution Capability, Sensitivity to Wildlife Protection, Transparency and Participation under the coordination of the central government.
National Water Plan and Restructuring at River Basin Scale
Turkey has prepared its national water plan and is about to finalize its planning for water management at the basin scale. As proposed in the 2019 National Water Plan (2019-20223) published in 2019, water management at the river basin scale should be dynamic, effective, fast decision-making, with strong supervisory power, participatory and transparent.
In the new structuring, there should be an effective institutional structure at the river basin scale, but the planning for each basin should be supervised and coordinated by a centralized structure. Decisions taken at the river basin scale should be in line with national water planning and should be implemented quickly with the help of effective River Basin Regional Directorates with high implementation power. The structure that will effectively implement these decisions at the river basin scale must be accepted by other institutions and organizations in the basin. This means that this new structure should have a recognized track record and experience in water management.
For all these arrangements to move in the right direction, a strategic plan and past experience and know-how in the field of water management are needed. For this reason, the institutional structure of the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) should be considered as the main pillar of restructuring without weakening it and losing its competent staff. Turkey continues to develop its water resources and is currently implementing three major water-based regional development projects, namely GAP, KOP and DAP. It is also investing in other water supply and environmental sanitation projects. There is still much work to be done in water resources development and water services management in Turkey. Water management requires the transfer of knowledge as well as experience and know-how to new staff. The weakening of the centralized public structure in water management, lack of planning and lack of merit leads to the disappearance of institutional culture and the dispersal of knowledge and experience. This is a major weakness for both present and future water management.
Innovative Strategic Plan is a Must
An innovative strategic plan is needed to sustainably develop our water resources under changing conditions and to manage water services as public services. In addition to high technical capacity, long years of institutional memory will play an important role in the institutions that will implement this plan. For this reason, the institutional structure of water management, which is currently in the process of restructuring, should be kept away from the basic reflexes of the bureaucracy such as opening up space for initiative and protecting its own authority, institutional conflicts, cumbersome and inefficient structures. In this context, the institutional structure of water management at the basin scale should be established by taking into account our national strategic water plan, our unique conditions and our development goals. This new institutional structure, just like the establishment of the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) in the mid-1950s, should be a strong institution capable of planning for the future, unique, visionary, highly adaptable to developments, capable of creating its own tradition, and outside the sphere of influence of political will.
Today, the sustainable provision of water resources management and environmental health services has become more difficult, complex and important than in the past. Water and water-related food, energy and environmental security are now considered as national security issues. Sustainable development requires a balance between social, economic and ecological objectives. This requires institutional structures with innovative approaches such as smart water management, digital information technologies, data analytics, uncertainty analysis and trained personnel.
Sustainable water and land resources management requires visionary strategic planning, implementation and monitoring. We have to plan, implement and supervise this planning. In order to be successful in implementation and supervision, we need to rapidly restructure our institutional infrastructure. Failure to realize these issues in a short period of time means that our country is doomed to suffer great strategic and economic losses in a very important area that directly concerns our development.
