Water level rises to 65 percent in Istanbul dams

ISTANBUL

Recent snowfall has been good news for Turkey’s most crowded metropolis of Istanbul, as the province was troubled by drought fears last year.

Water levels in the dams supplying the city have reached 64.66 percent thanks to the precipitation and melting of snowdrifts.

Data from the Istanbul Water and Sewage Administration (İSKİ) showed that the rise in the water level reached 10 percent in one week.

It was at just 19.1 percent in the beginning of last year, when the city’s water supplies were at alarmingly at low levels, but increased by more than three times in a year.

The highest water level was recorded at Istırancalar Dam at 98.5 percent, while it reached 87.4 percent in Elmalı Dam, 83.5 percent in Ömerli Dam.

The city relies on dams and large ponds for water for its more than 16 million inhabitants.

Overall, these dams have the capacity of storing up to 868.6 million cubic meters of water and the city consumes 2.9 million cubic meters of water on average each day.