Sinkholes in Turkey - 30th April 2021

This is a sinkhole in Turkey. Sinkholes are a big problem for Turkish farmers.

Tahsin Gundogdu is a potato farmer. He is worried about his farm.

Tahsin Gundogdu: "There have always been sinkholes, but lately, these last 10-15 years, there have been more and more. The cause of this in the Konya plain is the dryness of the soil and the lack of maintenance in the surrounding area."

Farmers make the sinkholes by accident. They take water from under the ground. This makes big holes under the ground. Then, the ground falls into the hole.

The farmers need water for their plants. But there isn't much rain in Turkey now. And water from the government is expensive. The farmers can't pay for lots of water. They have to take the water from under the ground.

Murat Akbulut is a farming engineer. He worries about the water in Turkey.

Murat Akbulut: "Currently, in our lakes, dams and groundwater, there is a significant drought. When we analyse Beysehir lake in our region which last year provided 450 million tonnes of water reserves for the (Konya) plain, in comparison to this year, the amount of water it can give is around 123 million tonnes."

Recep Erdogan is the president of Turkey. He wants to help the farmers. He talked to the farmers and the engineers. He wants to stop the problem.