WATER SHORTAGE

[cinbar]

 Hi there can anyone out there put my mind at rest, I have just returned from Kalkan on the day of my departure my neighbour was having a huge water tank delivered which indicates Kalkan has water shortage problems. Is this the case I would hate to think that my guests were without water.
Is it advisable to get a tank ?
Cinbar

Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=1113.0

[DRBD]

simply - yes - Kalkan does suffer from water cuts, especially in the high season, and with all the building going on it very often happens that a pipe is fractured or something even more serious.  We have been there and been without water for 4 days.
  In the meantime would suggest that you always have a store of the large water bottles, when you have used all the water in them, refill from the tap and place them in the bathrooms and kitchen then at least you can flush the loos and have some thing in the kitchen.

[Charlie]

Hi Cinbar we have a 1500 litre tank and it is usually enough to cover us for any water shortages for a day or two.  We make sure not to use the washng machine, dishwasher or water the gardens when the water is off. That leaves enough for toilets and showers.  I would make sure to get one installed before the season begins.

[felicity]

absolutely Cinbar - water storage tanks is essential - most good builders will put them in underground - usually next to your pool storage tanks - ours wasn''t and I only discovered by accident that there was no water storage so we now have 3 massive tanks on the roof - fortunately they are not visible to the public which apparently should keep 10 people going for 4 days with showers and loos (obviously not dishwasher and washing machine..!) so I think is it essential so that your guests do not suffer with no water - which can be a problem in the summer.  However, as we have an automatic pump - it is now difficult to tell when the water is on or off - so people will carry on using d/w and washing machine - oblivious to the potential problem - until the water runs out - which shouldn''t really happen - the water is rarely off for 4 days or more..!!

Cheers!

[vicksen]

Last night''s news highlighted just how big a problem shortage of water is in Turkey - with the exception of the Southeast, ALL the country''s dams are at an all time low.

The last few years have seen very low rainfalls, with this year being the worst yet.
Rainfall in the Mediterranean region is down 34% on last year, which was already very low.

This means that water shortages are now a major problem for Turkey and everybody in it, and will continue to be so, unless this spring sees a long spell of rain.

It isn''t just a question of it "being essential that your guests don''t suffer". It isn''t enough just to put a water tank on your roof or bury one in your garden in order to continue using a lot of water during cuts.

We are all going to have to look at ways of reducing our water usage in whatever ways we can.
It would be a nice gesture if villa owners put a write-up in their information packs asking guests not to be wasteful of water, for instance.

If we don''t all conserve water supplies, there can be no doubt that measures will be forced on us - for instance, swimming pools use huge amounts of water, and in areas so close to the Mediterranean, this will no doubt be seen as wasteful and unnecessary. It doesn''t take much to see that their use will be one of the first things to be banned.

We all need to wake up to the fact that this isn''t some sort of minor inconvenience which we should try to find ways round. It''s a potential major disaster, which we ALL need to do our bit to try to prevent.

[Lantana]

Following up on Vicksen''s post, there is currently  a proposal before the local municipality in Istanbul for the filling of swimming pools (in Istanbul) to be forbidden this year because of the severe water shortages the city is facing.

If that proposal becomes law, then naturally it is likely that other regions will follow. Akdeniz University, the leading regional authority on water conservation and all related matters has recently produced a study which demonstrates that the entire Turkish Mediterranean region could become uninhabitable in as little as ten years because there would be not a lack of water but no water at all, unless drastic steps are taken now to conserve water supplies. The Governor of Antalya has publicly stated that he will take any measures necessary to avoid this, including a complete ban on the use of swimming pools.

Some local municipalities are already starting to take action to conserve winter rainfall to allay summer shortages. In Kalkan, all winter rainfall runs straight into the sea. The stream, which runs from Bezirgan, down the mountain and through the village and then directly into the sea, in winter carries up to 1 million litres of water a day. All of that is lost.

 Kalkan has no municipal water reserves. In 2006, because of problems at the Gombe reservoir which supplies water to our part of the village,  we were without water for nine weeks and had to buy tankers of water (then priced at 40ytl each ) every five days.

So conservation is essential and should become second nature to everyone.

Lantana

[Roxie]

Hi,
I would have thought a water tank is absolutely essential. We were in Kalkan in January and were on our extra tank for 5 days. We ran out just as we were leaving. Stories of people in August with no water for days and no toilets for 3 children. Ours is under the pool and cuts in automatically. Expect to pay £300 - £700 for 1 and of course the water to fill it.

[Blue Lizard]

last summer there were water shortages in Kalkan...but when the water came back on restaurant ,bar and shop owners were still hosing down the street outside the  premises?i know it gets dusty but

[jayne]

When we first started coming to Kalkan several years ago, we were told that Turkey had so much water that it actually sold it to other countries. The situation is obviously a lot different now

[Del]

It seems to me that the problem here is not so much a lack of water but rather the lack of will to conserve & utilise the water that is flagrantly wasted. Lantana advises that a million litres of water flows into the sea in Kalkan alone! I do not dispute this figure but assuming that this is approximately correct, that is sufficient water to fill 100 swimming pools a day, assuming the pools are 3m x2m x average depth of 1.6m.
A larger pool of say 12.5m x7m x average depth of 1.6m  contains 140,000 litres, in other words 7 pools a a day are running straight into the sea. Add to this the wastage elsewhere & this puts the loss of water in context.
No-one is naiive enough to think that the Turkish authorities are going to immediately embark on a huge water recovery programme, not when there are plenty of soft targets to hit first. That seems to be the first law of government in any country. The UK government has an appalling record in failing to prevent water shrinkage, be it through poorly maintained infrastructure or in failing to sufficiently penalise privately owned water authorities who fail to hit conservation targets. Instead they impose hosepipe & carwash bans which are clearly no more that window dressing & acts of political expediency. I do not know the  structure of such authorities in Turkey but I suspect there will be no new initiatives shown but more depressingly a repeat of what we would see over here.

[Cosetta]

During the water shortage last summer it was illegal to hose down the streets.  Yet no one bothered about the temporary stop order and as you said, Blue Lizard, shopkeepers continued to hose down the streets.

Next to us is a villa whose gardeners turn on the water and leave.  Then it runs down the road for hours. I complained to the absent owner of the villa but nothing happened.  The waste continued.  Then we started climbing over the wall of that villa to shut off the water ourselves. 

Our water comes down from a reservoir in Akbel.  That reservoir frequently breaks and creates a rushing torrent of water running downhill alongside our house.  It breaks 2-3 times each summer.  Poor maintenance.

Do the local authorities care?  Not sure they realize how serious this really is.  Even if they do, it is the water authority that is responsible for water regulation, conservation and facilities.  They undoubtedly are limited by whatever budget they have.

Yes everyone can do their bit by trying to conserve water as much as possible.  If we cannot fill our pools, so be it.

[cinbar]

Thank you for all of your replies and making me aware of the problems, all I need to know now is who supplies the water tanks in Kalkan as I need to get on with ordering one fairly quickly.