Sinkholes spread in Turkey - 30th April 2021

Vast sinkholes, wide enough to swallow a bus, dot the drought stricken Turkish plains that are the breadbasket of the country.

Tahsin Gundogdu farms potatoes for local consumption and for international conglomerates.

Tahsin Gundogdu: "There have always been sinkholes, but lately, these last 10-15 years, there have been more and more. The cause of this in the Konya plain is the dryness of the soil and the lack of maintenance in the surrounding area.”

Drought in Turkey has resulted in shortages of water for irrigation purposes and farmers are extracting groundwater from the land. However, overuse of groundwater for irrigation dries out the deeper layers of the ground, leading to the formation of underground caverns. Sinkholes are created when these voids can no longer hold the weight of the soil above.

Although farmers have been ordered to limit the use of groundwater, other means of getting water for irrigation are more costly. Many of the farmers, already struggling financially, are left with no other option but to use groundwater, thus worsening the problem.

Murat Akbulut, head of Konya's chamber of agricultural engineers, laments the growing crisis.

Murat Akbulut: "Currently, in our lakes, dams and groundwater, there is a significant drought. When we analyse Beysehir lake in our region which last year provided 450 million tonnes of water reserves for the (Konya) plain, in comparison to this year, the amount of water it can give is around 123 million tonnes."

Such is the concern that last month President Recep Erdogan hosted a water forum vowing to "renew and improve the agricultural irrigation systems".

Some blame global warming and climate change. However, farmers and ministers alike acknowledge that there are concrete things that can be changed to improve the situation.