Holes large enough to swallow several cars, dug by the drought, have multiplied in recent years in Turkey's most fertile plains, sparking growing concern among farmers who see them moving closer to dwellings. "" The situation, with regard to the drought, is getting worse and worse ", alarms Tahsin Gundogdu, who grows in particular potatoes in the province of Konya (south), which he sells to the American agribusiness giant. PepsiCo. This 57-year-old farmer has seen these sinkholes multiply for 10 or 15 years, as a result of the overexploitation of groundwater.
Dizzyingly deep, they form when underground cavities that once held water collapse under the weight of the soil.
Faced with this phenomenon, farmers are in great trouble.
Indeed, channeling water otherwise to irrigate their crops is more expensive, reducing their profits.
But continuing to pump groundwater will only make the problem worse.
Professor Fetullah Arik of Konya Technical University has counted around 600 holes this year in that province, almost double the 350 spotted last year.
READ ALSO>
VIDEO.
Siberia: researchers unravel the mystery of a giant crater
Farmers, who globally strive to use groundwater less, have to both irrigate their fields more often due to drought and seek water elsewhere, inflating their electricity bills. Before, watering the fields twice a year was enough. Today we have to do it five or six times, ”explains Hazim Sezer, agriculture in Karapinar, Konya province. If the problem is not resolved, the drought will have consequences for farmers and consumers "as great or even more" than the economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, warns Baki Remzi Suicmez, head of the Chamber of Agricultural Engineers of Turkey (ZMO).
