Turkey’s western city of İzmir, the country’s third-largest metropolis, has announced it will cut water supplies every third day due to worsening drought conditions.
The İzmir Water and Sewerage Administration said on Friday that the city has been divided into three zones, with one of those zones facing an overnight outage from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. each day.
Reservoir levels supplying the city have dropped sharply, with overall capacity falling from 13.2 percent to 4.1 percent as of mid-August, according to the state water authority.
Officials warn İzmir has only about two months of drinking water left unless rainfall improves.
Recent studies show Turkey faces a mounting desertification risk.
A United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification assessment in July 2025 estimated that 88 percent of the country’s land is at risk.
The Turkish Foundation for Reforestation, Protection of Natural Habitats and Combating Soil Erosion (TEMA) put the figure at 73.4 percent. Peer-reviewed mapping projects classify more than 60 percent of the territory as fragile or critical.
Despite differing methods, the analyses agree that drought and land degradation are increasing.
According to a UN-supported index, Turkey could move from being a water-stressed country to a water-poor one by 2030 without stronger conservation and supply measures.