On May 3rd, a closed workshop was organised by the env.net team in TEMA Foundation, to discuss the latest version of Turkey’s draft water law with the reknown experts from TEMA’s scientific advisory committee.

In the meeting, participants compared the two latest drafts of the law, shared with public: the 2012 and 2016 versions. It was agreed upon that the latest draft still failed to address the most important issues against the commoditisation and commercialisation of water. The experts, in unanimity, claimed that, although the law seems to bring many improvements regarding to the current condition, the discussed draft is still far from being complete and cannot be accepted as it is. The lack of a proper definition of water and missing statements against the non-commercialisation cancel out all the possible improvements and put the scarce water resources of the country in great danger.

 

 

The views discussed in the workshop were then put together by the env.net team and sent to the relevant stakeholders in the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs.