http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0115/p01s04-woeu.html
Drain on the Mediterranean: rising water usage
In a dramatic illustration of a broader regional crisis, a Turkish lake
three times the size of Washington, D.C., has dried up in the past 15 years.
By Nicole Itano | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Taskupru, Turkey
Arif Karaoglu recalls the days when Lake Aksehir lapped at the foot of
the village mosque and residents had to build high walls to protect
their homes from flooding. Now, when he looks out across the landscape,
he sees only a vast, sandy plateau. Until recently, a body of water
three times the size of Washington, D.C., filled the plain.
"Dust," laments Mr. Karaoglu, who moved to the village in 1942. "There's
nothing but dust."
Dubbed the country's grain warehouse, central Turkey's Konya plain has
long been known for its beautiful lakes and vast fields, which produce
10 percent of Turkey's agricultural yield. But both are now threatened
by a severe water shortage that dramatically illustrates a broader
regional crisis.
Across the Mediter-ranean, water is being pumped out of the earth at an
unsustainable pace. In Italy's Milan region, groundwater levels have
fallen by more than 80 feet over the past 80 years. So much water has
been pumped from the Jeffara aquifer in Libya that even if all
withdrawals stopped, it would take 75 years for the aquifer to return to
its original level, estimates a 2005 report by the Blue Plan – a United
Nations program on development and the environment in the Mediterranean.
As a result of this profligate water use, at least 50 percent of the
region's wetlands are at risk, according to the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF). In addition, more than 100,000 square miles of coastal regions –
roughly the same area as the United Kingdom – are under threat of
desertification.
Near Konya, water pumped from underground to feed the thirsty crops
above is part of the same closed system as the lakes. The cultivation of
new land, along with a transition to more thirsty crops like sugar beet,
has increased water use beyond what is naturally replaced, causing
groundwater levels to fall and the lakes to dry up. More than a decade
of drought and rising summer temperatures – which causes increased
evaporation – have exacerbated the situation and laid bare the magnitude
of the problem.
"These lakes are 5 million years old," says Guler Gocmez, a geologist at
Selçuk University in Konya, who has been studying the region's lakes for
the past 25 years. "There's always been water here, but that might not
be true much longer."
The Turkish government has a plan to divert water from the Goksu River
to the Konya Basin for agricultural use and to fill the depleted lakes
and wetlands. To date, the focus of most countries confronting water
shortages has been to increase supply, often through massive
infrastructure projects like dams, says Gael Thivet of the Blue Plan.
More emphasis, experts say, needs to be placed on saving or reusing
water, as well as on reducing demand.
Doubled water usage
Freshwater has always been a scarce commodity in the semi-arid
Mediterranean. It has 7 percent of the world's population, but only 3
percent of its freshwater resources. And the UN-sponsored
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report predicts that
global warming may lead to less rainfall and more evaporation in the
region, further reducing the supply of water.
Half the world's "water poor" – that is, people whose access to
freshwater is deemed inadequate – live in the Mediterranean region,
mostly on the sea's eastern and southern shores. By 2025, the Blue Plan
predicts that due to population growth and expanding agriculture, the
number of water poor in the region could be as high as 165 million in
2025, up from 108 million in 2000.
But human demand for this vital resource is booming. During the second
half of the 20th century, water usage in the Mediterranean doubled.
While a handful of countries, like Israel and Cyprus, have reduced or
stabilized their water use, in most countries the demand for water is
expected to continue to rise in coming decades.
"We started talking about it more than 30 years ago," says Michael
Scoullos, chairman of the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean, a
network of organizations working on water issues in the region. "The
pioneers are always considered Cassandras – this is the problem. But now
clearly we've reached the crisis point.... We've done just enough to
break and slow down the destruction, but not to reverse the situation."
Irrigation competing with lakes for water
In general, the countries with the fastest-growing water demands are
those on the Mediterranean's southern and eastern shores, where the
population is set to increase by 92 million in less than two decades.
Irrigation is also set to expand dramatically by 2030, rising 38 percent
in the south and 58 percent to the east.
In Konya, as elsewhere in the Mediterranean, agriculture is the biggest
user of water. Around the city, vast fields of wheat, barley, corn, and
beets are grown, much of it irrigated with groundwater from the same
hydrologic system used by the disappearing lakes. An estimated 70
percent of the water consumption in the area is used for agriculture,
much of it drawn from illegally drilled wells, says Dr. Gocmez.
The government is beginning to try to shut down the illegal wells, but
it's a slow and difficult process. If nothing is done, she warns, "Konya
will turn into a desert."
Digging 184 feet deeper to get water
About 50 miles from Taskupru, Farmer Omer Karayer is well aware that
there is a problem. Ten years ago, his well was 16 feet deep. This year,
he had to dig nearly 200 feet to reach water.
"It's obvious that the water is going," he says with a shrug. "My
children won't be able to farm here."
Although he knows water is scarce, Mr. Karayer still grows sugar beets,
the most water-intensive crop cultivated in the area. Gocmez tries to
convince him to switch to a less wasteful irrigation method that the
government is promoting, but he thinks it is too expensive. Even with a
government grant covering 50 percent of the cost, Gocmez admits it would
take the farmer an estimated two years to make back his capital investment.
But for Taskupru, it may be too late. "There are only old people left in
each house," says the village's elected leader Cemal Somuncular, who
still owns the decaying nets he once used to catch lobster and fish.
"The village will disappear unless the lake comes back."
