Ankara Metropolitan Municipality (ABB) on Friday announced that water outages that hit the capital since December ended, but new cuts were reported in the districts of Mamak and Çankaya. The issue puts the municipality run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Mayor Mansur Yavaş in the spotlight. CHP Chairperson Özgür Özel rushed to the aid of Yavaş and accused the government of failing to address the issue, but a minister in charge of water works shot down Özel’s allegations.
Over the past few days, Özel repeatedly claimed that the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI) was responsible for supplying water to the cities and the municipality was merely authorized to deliver water through the water grid. “DSI was supposed to bring water to Ankara, but they did not,” Özel told a rally in western Türkiye’s Denizli on Sunday.
In a social media post on Sunday, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ibrahim Yumaklı said Mansur Yavaş did not build any dams but failed to deliver water from a dam that the DSI built to the people of Ankara. “You are tasked with serving people, but you failed and resorted to (political) tricks. I wish you’d fulfill your responsibilities. Please tell us if you won’t and we will take over to ensure people will not suffer,” Yumaklı said.
The minister lamented that the CHP was still not aware of the source of the problem, and instead of solving it, it tried to dodge the responsibility. “You have not invested (in water distribution) properly and left people in Ankara, in 2026, without water. You forced them to go from public fountain to fountain,” he said, noting that the current problem was a culmination of years of negligence on the part of the CHP-run municipality. He highlighted that one-third of water supplied by DSI-built dams was “lost” en route to households due to problems in the water grid run by the municipality.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized the situation during his party’s parliamentary group meeting last Wednesday, accusing local authorities of incompetence. “We will not leave this nation at the mercy of those who made countless promises during the election season but have been unable to provide even water to the capital for weeks,” he said.
In a statement last week, Memduh Aslan Akçay, director of the municipality’s Ankara Water and Sewage Administration (ASKI), said snowfall has not led to an increase in water supply from the Gerede system or the Çamlıdere Basin, urging residents to conserve water.
In a statement released by ABB, Akçay said rainfall has remained below seasonal averages. “There is currently no increase in the water we receive from Gerede or the Çamlıdere Basin,” he said. “Snow has fallen, but because it has not melted, there has been no increase in inflow to the dams. For this reason, we are calling on our citizens to be much more careful about water conservation.”
Akçay said efforts to secure the water supply are ongoing, including projects to draw groundwater from wells that could meet the needs of about 500,000 residents. Work is also continuing on new transmission lines and improvements to existing infrastructure from Kesikköprü, he said.
Noting the risk that drought conditions could persist, Akçay said planning is based on the possibility that drought levels seen in 2025 could continue into 2026. “We have an action plan in place for that scenario, and all our work is being carried out accordingly,” he said.
Akçay said multiple measures have been implemented to reduce water consumption and urged residents not to use tap water for filling swimming pools, watering gardens or fields, washing cars or carpets.
He stressed that access to sufficient water for basic human needs is a fundamental right and said ASKI and the municipality are working around the clock, year-round, to ensure it.
