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Mine Islar

Senior Lecturer, Docent, Deputy Director

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Political ecology of inter-basin water transfers in Turkish water governance

Author

  • Mine Islar
  • Chad Boda

Summary, in English

We explore the emergence of two contemporary mega water projects in Turkey that are designed to meet the demands of the country's major urban centers. Moreover, we analyze how policy makers in the water sector frame problems and solutions. We argue that these projects represent a tendency to depoliticize water management and steer away from controversial issues of water allocation by emphasizing large-scale, centralized, technical, and supply-oriented solutions. In doing so, urgent concerns are ignored regarding unsustainable water use, impacts on rural livelihoods, and institutional shortcomings in the water sector. These aspirations build heavily on prevailing discourses of modernity, development, and economic growth, and how urban centers are perceived as drivers of this growth. In the light of these tendencies, social and environmental implications are downplayed, even though the projects will change or already have changed the dynamics within urban-rural life and agricultural water resources practices. We develop an understanding of how such projects are presented as the only solution to problems of water scarcity in Turkey.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Pages

15-15

Publication/Series

Ecology & Society

Volume

19

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

The Resilience Alliance

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Keywords

  • inter-basin water transfers
  • political ecology
  • Turkey
  • urban water
  • water governance

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1708-3087