Water cuts in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara for the past several weeks are due to the worst drought in 50 years and a growing population, a municipal official told Agence France-Presse, denying accusations of mismanagement.
Reservoir levels have dropped to 1.12 percent, according to AFP, and taps have been shut off for several hours a day in some districts on a rotating schedule, forcing residents to line up at public fountains to fill containers.
“2025 was a record year in terms of drought. The amount of water feeding the dams fell to historically low levels, to 182 million cubic meters in 2025, compared with 400 to 600 million cubic meters in previous years. This is the driest period in the last 50 years,” said Memduh Akçay, director-general of the Ankara Water and Sewerage Administration (ASKİ).
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called the Ankara municipal authorities, led by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), “incompetent.”
Rejecting that criticism, Ankara’s city hall said the capital is suffering from climate change and a growing population that has doubled since the 1990s to nearly 6 million residents.
“In addition to reduced precipitation, the irregularity of rainfall patterns, the decline in snowfall and the rapid conversion of precipitation into runoff [due to urbanization] prevent the dams from refilling effectively,” Akçay said.
Ankara city hall said a new pumping system drawing water from below the required level in dams will ensure no water cuts this weekend, but it added that the problem will persist without sufficient rainfall.
Much of Turkey experienced drought in 2025. In İzmir, the country’s third-largest city on the Aegean coast, the municipality has imposed daily water cuts since last summer.
© Agence France-Presse