A QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF TURKEY'S WATER RESOURCES POTENTIAL

Abstract

One of the most basic human needs is water and the other is food. Water is also needed to create all the nutrients required for nutrition. Therefore, water is the basic element of life. While the presence of underground mines and oil is an indicator of the wealth of a country, the existence of water resources is now considered in this group, since the value of water is understood today. 
 A hundred years ago, the existing water availability in a country was a direct indicator of the water wealth of that country. However, as a result of the increase in industrialization and the rapid pollution of water resources, it has become a necessity to evaluate water not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality. Because the unit water value of a source is related to how much different purposes that source can be used for. The more a water resource can be used for many purposes, the more valuable it is. Sometimes one unit of very clean water is more valuable than a hundred units of dirty water. For this reason, the presence of a country's water resources should be evaluated not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality.
 In this study, the total surface waters as rivers and lakes and underground waters of Turkey were examined in terms of quantity and quality on a basin basis, and comments were made about the basin water potentials.
 Although the amount of water in 25 water basins in Turkey does not show a significant change over time, a serious pollution draws attention in terms of quality, especially in the last 50 years. The change in the amount of water in the basin mostly manifests itself in the form of a decrease in the water amount of river, lake and groundwater. This process is a situation that arises with the effect of global warming and climate change, which is a global problem that concerns the whole world. However, pollution in water resources and making the water resource unusable are all related to the fact that the regulations on the protection of water are not adequately implemented and people do not act consciously. In other words, although quantitative reduction is a global problem, the quality problem is related to the polluting factors in the region of that resource.
 In the country with a very high population growth rate, the decrease in the per capita water potential and the rapid increase in the pollution in the existing resources cause the amount of usable water resources to decrease gradually. In this study, attention was drawn to point and diffuse pollution on the basis of water presence and water source on the basis of basin, and the evaluation of Turkey's water resources in terms of quantity and quality was made.