Drought in Turkey ravages farms, threatens cities

YENICIFTLIK, Turkey (AFP) - Since October the north-west Marmara region, home to Turkey's largest city Istanbul, has received only 394 millimetres (15.5 inches) of rain per square metre, 34 percent less than normal, while the Aegean coast has seen 355 millimetres, about 43 percent less than the usual level.

The situation is unprecedented for at least three decades, according to the weather service.

"I'm 62 years old and I haven't seen such a drought in my life," said Abdulkerim Aksu in Yeniciftlik, a village of about 2,000 people to the west of Istanbul.

Every morning over the past several months, the dimunitive man has filled up the cistern on his trailer truck at a dam some 10 kilometres (six miles) away to water his crops.

He has managed to save his watermelons and peppers, but was unable to irrigate his larger fields of wheat and sunflowers.

"We had to harvest the wheat last month even though it was not yet time. It would have burnt otherwise," he said. "We ended up with 50 percent less crop."

"And look at the sunflowers," he added. "They did not even grow leaves."
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