Excavation works on the largest irrigation tunnel in Türkiye, located in southeastern Diyarbakır province, started on Thursday with a ceremony video-addressed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who burdened the significance of correctly managing water sources, calling it a matter of “national security.”
“Türkiye is not a water-rich country; on the contrary, we are a water-stressed country. If we do not take the necessary measures and take action now, we may face much bigger problems,” Erdoğan mentioned, talking at a ceremony for the beginning of excavation works for Silvan Tunnel.
“Preserving, efficiently using and properly managing our water resources before they reach the limit of depletion is not optional for our country, but a matter of national security,” he added.
Erdoğan, as a part of his remarks, additionally famous that they’ve targeted on insurance policies aimed on the environment friendly use of water over the past 23 years, stating that they’ve made a complete funding of TL 3.35 trillion within the water sector and opened 10,663 amenities.
Highlighting that water is the supply of life, manufacturing, civilization and power, and that with out water there isn’t any life and abundance, he mentioned: “In the past, people fought over oil and carbon fuels. Apparently, it looks they will fight over water in the coming period, because water is the most strategic and valuable resource of this century.”
However, he identified that the strain on water sources has been rising over the past century because of local weather change, drought, rising inhabitants and urbanization.
“We have started to witness droughts, floods and forest fires more frequently. Last week, we had an agricultural frost that adversely affected many provinces in our country,” he recalled.
“Scientists say that much more difficult days await us in the future. We are all well aware that Türkiye is not a water-rich country. On the contrary, we are a water-stressed country. If we do not take the necessary measures and take action now, we may face much bigger problems. Preserving, efficiently using and properly managing our water resources before they reach the limit of depletion is not optional for our country, but a matter of national security,” he defined.
Erdoğan additionally mentioned that the Silvan Tunnel would be the largest irrigation tunnel in Türkiye, with an excavation diameter of 11.2 meters.
“The 13,200-meter-long tunnel will transmit 212 cubic meters of water per second to the irrigation areas and other dams within the scope of the project. This project is the largest irrigation project in our country after the Atatürk Dam,” he famous.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli was in Diyarbakır, the place he met with native officers and Governor Murat Zorluoğlu, and in addition attended the ceremony for the beginning of excavation works on the “Silvan Tunnel,” the most important irrigation tunnel in Türkiye.
Mehmet Mehdi Eker, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Agricultural Strategy and Policy Development Center (TARPOL) and former Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, said in his speech on the ceremony that the Silvan Dam is a venture that may change the destiny of farmers.
Explaining that cotton, corn and comparable industrial vegetation have been produced in Diyarbakır within the final twenty years, Eker famous that town is among the many few provinces in Türkiye with manufacturing on this space and that they owe this to irrigation.
He additionally talked about that the Silvan Dam dream was first seen within the Nineteen Seventies, but it surely remained a dream till 2004, when he mentioned President Erdoğan introduced at Diyarbakır Square that the Silvan Project could be applied. “We laid the foundation in 2012. Today marks the beginning of an important stage. The tunnel is one of the most important legs of this project,” he mentioned.
Silvan Dam is a part of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), a multi-sector, built-in regional growth venture, for which the Turkish authorities envisages an allocation of round $14 billion by 2028.
Zorluoğlu, for his half, additionally mentioned that the dam will not be an bizarre infrastructure venture for Diyarbakır, suggesting it can enhance agricultural manufacturing by two to 3 occasions and make profound contributions to employment.
Source: www.dailysabah.com