Istanbul's Reservoirs Will Only Last 57 Days

The reservoirs supplying Turkey's most populous city, Istanbul, are projected to have enough water for only 57 days if the drought continues. Levon Azizyan, director of the Hydro-Meteorological Monitoring Center, shared this information on his Facebook page.

On Monday, the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (İSKİ) announced that the city's reservoirs are filled to just 21% (182.9 million cubic meters out of 868 million). This is the worst figure in the last decade, except for 2023, when reservoirs were only 17.6% full at the same time.

The administration claims that the city, with a population of over 16 million, consumes approximately 3.2 million cubic meters of water daily, urging citizens to conserve water. The agency calculated that at this consumption rate, the water reserves will suffice for another 57 days if there are no rainfall.

In October, the General Directorate of Meteorology (GDME) reported that the summer of 2025 is expected to be the driest in Istanbul, Izmir, and 16 other provinces in the last 65 years. Since April, the volume of Istanbul's reservoirs has steadily decreased by over 80%. Currently, only one of the ten reservoirs that supply the city is more than 25% full, while two of them are filled to less than 5%.