Turkey’s first dam back in service after 27 years

ANKARA

Çubuk-1, Turkey’s first reinforced concrete dam which was constructed on Çubuk Stream in Ankara with the orders of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the country’s first president and its founder, has started to hold water after 27 years of a break.

The activities of the dam were stopped in 1994 due to pollution in the stream and the filling of the dam bowl with alluvium, but it was made functional again thanks the efforts of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality.

Özgür Alçı, deputy general manager of ANFA, a subsidiary of the municipality, stated that the aim is to hold water up to 50 percent of the dam’s capacity and that the dam will be made to assist agricultural irrigation as soon as possible.

“The initial establishment capacity of the dam is 13.5 million cubic meters. We aim at nearly 7 million cubic meters of water retention,” Alçı said, adding that residents will meet with healthier, visually smoother and odor-free water.

The construction of which started in 1930 within the framework of Ankara’s efforts to become a modern capital city after the proclamation of the Turkish Republic, the dam that aims to control floods and provide drinking water to the residents was put into service six years later with the participation of Atatürk.