CESME:Ali Alyanak and his neighbors in Turkiye’s tourist hub Izmir now have to draw water from a shrinking aquifer 170 meters underground even as hotel pools remain full — a sign for many of the region’s dire water crisis amid prolonged drought.
“Our parents used to draw water from a depth of eight to nine meters, but now we have to go down to 170 meters (560 feet),” said Alyanak, the 39-year-old village chief in Germiyan.
To cope, authorities in nearby Cesme, a popular seaside resort in Izmir province on Turkiye’s western coast, are restricting drinking water access to 10 hours a day.
The city of Izmir itself, Turkiye’s third largest, will cut that access to just six hours starting Wednesday.
Desolate images from the large nearby dam that supplies Cesme, widely broadcast on television, illustrated the risks for the region: its water level has plunged to three percent of capacity, leaving behind a barren landscape.
