Turkish water chief warns supplies low
 

ANKARA - Turkey may be selling fresh water to Israel but it is extremely short of water itself and must invest $1 billion a year on building new dams, the chief of the country's water authority said this week.

Turkey earlier this month agreed to sell 50 million cubic metres (1.77 billion cu ft) of water annually to Israel from the outflow of the Manavgat river into the Mediterranean Sea.

"The Manavgat has a capacity of 186 million cubic metres. We can provide water for any country that asks. Not because Turkey has excess water but because we want to share water we cannot use with our neighbours," State Water Works Director Mumtaz Turfan told reporters.

"Turkey is not water-rich, in fact it is a country that could soon hit a water crisis," he said.

His comments come as international delegates debate water security among other issues at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa.

Turkey has been building dams, primarily in its southeast, for decades, as part of a multi-billion dollar development project. The Southeast Anatolian Project (GAP), a complex of 22 dams and 19 power plants on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, has caused tension with downstream neighbours Iraq and Syria.

Turfan warned that Turkey needed to invest further in dams and also reduce water-waste in farming.

"If the current techniques and technology continue, agriculture will suffer a water problem very soon. If we use high technology then a water crisis is out of the question," he said.

"We need to bring 350 hydroelectric power plants on line in 25 years and invest $1 billion a year."