Corporate Water Torture in Antalya

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Cumhuriyet Newspaper, 4 October 2019)


                                  Swimming upstream.

In Kumluca, Antalya, the couple Tuğba Günal and Birhan Erkutlu
have long been fighting against the construction of a hydroelectric
power station (HES) in the valley of the Alakır River.  Sixteen years
ago the couple settled in Kuzca village along the river.

However, one Ali Süzen, the construction site foreman of the energy
company that aims to build the HES, Metamar-Dedegöl, bought the
land next to the couple and diverted the flow of an underground water
source for their land to his own fountain and pool.


Photo shows water source diversion (blue line) 
from the couple's land to that of Ali Süzen, the 
HES company's construction site foreman.

The couple filed suit for having had to endure 116 days without water.
A court-appointed expert witness confirmed that the water source
had been diverted from the couple's land to the Süzen's and the
judge then temporarily ordered that the water source be directed back
to the couple's land.

But in a hearing the day before yesterday, at the request of the HES
company, another expert witness was appointed - the person who
sold the land to Süzen in the first place. (!)



The Alakır River valley runs north from the Mediterranean 
coast near Kumluca.