Turkey to devise water policy based on council meeting

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey will devise its future water policy based on decisions taken at a high-level meeting, the country's minister of agriculture and forestry said Wednesday.

"With takeaways from the Water Council meeting, we aim to enact a water law to allocate and better manage resources," Bekir Pakdemirli told Anadolu Agency's Editors' Desk in the capital Ankara.

The 1st Water Council meeting was held Tuesday with the attendance of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Pakdemirli underlined that Turkey has invested 225 billion Turkish liras ($101 billion) in the field of irrigation in 19 years.

He added: "During the same period, 600 dams were built."

He noted that Turkey was a water-stressed country but not water-poor.

"However, it is a candidate nation for water poverty with the climatic changes taking place."

*Writing by Yunus Girgin