Lake AkÅŸehir, one of the largest lakes in Turkey has almost dried up. This tectonic freshwater endoreic lake in the southwestern Turkish province of Konya is shrinking due to years of lack of rainfall.
Quoted from Hurriyet Daily News, Wednesday (8/9/2021) the 54-square-kilometer lake is now starting to be overgrown with weeds. Global climate change and excessive drainage of water for irrigation purposes are the main factors for the depletion of the lake's water.
Tahir Nalbantçılar, an academic from the Technical University of Konya, stated that there was a layer of cracked soil up to five meters deep in the middle of Turkey's fifth largest lake.
He said that global warming was the main reason for the lake to dry up, but this was not the only cause, because agricultural activities in the region also played a role.
"It is clear that ponds built for irrigation purposes, embankments built in front of important rivers, and some buildings built to support agricultural activities are also draining the capillaries that feed these lakes," he stressed.
"If we don't change our current water use system, this lake will soon say goodbye to us forever," he added.
Climate change affects all aspects of life, including water scarcity, damage to land and ocean ecosystems, declining health quality, and food scarcity.
Last month, for the first time in the world there was hunger due to climate change. The United Nations World Food Program reports large numbers of Madagascar's population are on the verge of starvation after four years of extremely low rainfall.
Historically, hunger was caused by a combination of factors such as pests, natural disasters, human conflict, and political corruption. But this time, the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations say that this is the first time that starvation has occurred purely due to the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
