Water Resources Management for Konya Basin Agriculture Under Different Projections

Global warming, population increase and environmental pollution have adversely affected water resources in most countries as well as Turkey. As we all know that there is a strong relationship between sustainable water management and economic development. Approximately 90% of total area is irrigated by surface irrigation methods and about 75% of the water resources are being used in agriculture of Turkey. Water resources of Konya Closed Basin, KCB, of Turkey are mostly groundwater and very scarce. Agriculture with present status has resulted excess water uses in Basin. The possible most important reason of over water uses is increase of the planting areas of highly water consumption crops, such as sugar beet and involving great water consumption crops to the current crop pattern. If this trend continues, groundwater potential of basin will be wiped out in near future. To solve such problems, excess water uses from the basin resources should be avoided by increasing the land size of low water consuming crops. On the other hand, people especially in rural areas and other whole society are senseless about the importance of water resources and dangers of drought. They should be informed about the efficient water uses in agriculture by organizing some activities such as farmer education, seminars. There should be a new legislation about sustainable water uses. In this paper, firstly water resources-agriculture relationships in KCB will be analyzed and then factors necessitating efficient use and management of water resources under social, environmental, economic and political reasons will be discussed.