Page 25 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 1

Zekâi Şen

In addition to irrigation, water is known to be utilized for the purposes
mentioned below (Şen, 2008).
a) While early people spent a great deal of their time travelling to
distant places to hunt and forage for food with the water civilizations, humans
invented agriculture, which allowed locally the production of food and plants
necessary for their survival. Eventually, humans produced more grain than
they needed, and have been able to use their time for other activities.
b) Instead of individual-based operations, today the needs of the
society is taken into consideration, and water resources are used, planned
and maintained collectively.
c) With the increased importance of water resources, a water code
was adopted, and the use of water is rendered possible collectively. Moreover,
sharing the costs of water resources, preserving and maintaining water
structures gained importance.
Even today, the points mentioned above still apply to all societies and
states. As in many countries, agriculture is not sufficient to meet the needs
of the people some countries became dependent on others for agricultural
products as food. This led to the use of even a single drop of water effectively in
those countries. In this respect, not only surface waters, but also groundwater
and water gained from rainfall (collecting or harvesting rainwater, or snowmelt)
is utilized with great care.
Today, agricultural practices have improved further with the use of
technology instead of human or animal labor and the transport of water to
distant areas where no agriculture may have taken place. The best example
to such practices is Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi (GAP, Southeastern Anatolia
Project), which started in the Southeastern region of Türkiye and is about to
be completed. It is one of the biggest water system facilities in the world.
Particularly, the water reservoirs of the Euphrates River and other rivers flowing
into the Persian Gulf are retained (through embankments, dams or water
connections) in the project. It is expected to enable several harvests a year
from Harran Plain, a region dominated by drought, by transporting part of the
retained water through canals and tunnels. Thus, through the development of
otherwise stagnant water resources within a system, it will become a region,
where the agricultural crops produced by local people will be exported to
neighboring and European countries. Another important benefit of such a
project is to minimize global warming in the regions, where access to water is
now possible.
The current conditions necessitate the preservation and development of
water resources systematically through plans made in advance. To reduce
or adapt to the effects of climate change, it is essential to use fossil fuels

10 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate,