Management of Clean Water and Wastewater Sources in Van Agricultural Areas

Abstract

Van province territory constitutes 2.5% of Turkey’ land with land of 19.069 km2 and is located in a position approximately 374.500 hectares of agricultural land. Although having potentially for irrigation, only 50 % of the agricultural land (260.000 ha) colud be irrigated. For non-irrigated areas, the low quality of water, inadequate irrigation water, and difficulties in delivering water to fields and lack of investment for the closed transport system can be considered as limiting factors. Total 4 dam lakes (reservoir), including one under constructions and nearly 15 lakes and ponds are situated in the provincial border. As waste water potential, treatment plants in city have been active in 5 of them and 2 of them are under construction. Annually 60 million tons of sewage waste water is discharged into rivers and Lake Van by Van province sewer line. By using this water for agricultural purposes, a certain amount of water will be provided to non-irrigated areas. In this study, with the current water situation in agricultural areas of Van province potential use of irrigation water and waste water. © 2016, Centenary University. All rights reserved.