Severe Drought Triggers Water Shortages, Restrictions in Izmir Tourism Region

The city of Izmir, Turkey, is facing a severe water crisis exacerbated by prolonged drought and increasing water demand from tourism. Residents in villages like Germiyan now have to dig wells as deep as 170 meters to access water, a dramatic rise from previous depths of around nine meters, while hotels continue to maintain full swimming pools, intensifying local frustrations over water usage. Authorities have imposed strict water access restrictions, limiting supply to as few as six hours a day in Izmir and ten hours in nearby Cesme, highlighting the critical state of regional water reservoirs which have dropped to as low as three percent capacity. Experts attribute the crisis to climate change-driven reductions in rainfall, with 88 percent of Turkey's territory at risk of desertification, alongside the high water consumption by tourists, who use two to three times more water than locals. Similar concerns are raised in Isfahan, Iran, where excessive groundwater extraction linked to water shortages is causing land subsidence, threatening the stability of its historic architecture. These developments underscore the environmental and cultural risks posed by water scarcity in prominent historical and tourist regions in the Middle East.