According to the Istanbul Water Resources and Sewerage Authority (İSKİ), on Wednesday, the occupancy rate of storage facilities that provide fresh water to Istanbul was 33.37 percent, more than 289 million cubic meters, while in August of last year the figure was 62 percent. Meanwhile, in the last two weeks, the average daily consumption has oscillated between 3 and 3.5 million cubic meters.
“Thus, the city has 91 days of water left, but if we take into account that 25% evaporates, then the reserves are only enough for 61 days,” warns the television channel.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu addressed the city’s residents on social media and encouraged them to use water sparingly as the thermometer will not drop below 30 degrees for the next ten days and forecasters do not forecast rainfall.
Officials said that in the last two weeks, the water level has dropped by more than 4 percent, while half of the largest reservoirs have practically become shallow: they are only 2 percent full. At the same time, only in 2014, from this moment, the degree of filling of the reservoirs reached a critical 17 percent. In subsequent years, inventory levels always exceeded the 52 percent mark.
According to İSKİ, 80 percent of the water reserves are currently distributed among three storage facilities: Omerli, Darlyk and Terkos.
