In this article, Kalkan Turkish Local News translates a statement, which appears on the Kalkan Belediye website, about the recent water problems.

It provides some background, explains what they have done, and includes an apology to Kalkan residents and visitors.

Interestingly, the statement says that a project team is working on alternative options, to prevent a repeat of the problem in future.

Here is the statement: 

Dear people of Kalkan and visitors.

We have seen the supply of water to Kalkan as a major problem since the day we had held office [April 2009].  Last year we added 2 new pumps and serviced the existing 15 year old pumps.  Despite all our efforts this year, the system failed to support the demand in Kalkan.

Our technical team in Saklıkent came to the conclusion that new pumps would be needed, in order to solve the problem.  Hence, together with the municipality of Kaş, we undertook research for a replacement, put our requirements out to tender and now the purchase has been completed.

Two new pumps, [shown in the photo, left], with total capacity equivalent to the existing 9 were bought, and 4 of the old ones were repaired for emergencies. Testing and installation was recently completed, and water has been flowing from Saklıkent fort the last few days.

In order to minimise the problems people were facing, we delivered water to residences and workplaces, with our fire trucks, through the day and night.  However we could not supply everyone, due to our limited resources and manpower.

As a result of our joint approach with Kaş Belediye, our water supply is now under control.  However, given the distress caused by this water supply problem, we have a project team looking at alternative solutions, in order to avoid similar issues in the future.  In the long term, such a project is essential for our town.

The water supply in Kalkan, which has been neglected for a long time, has been on our agenda since the first day of our administration. 

On 13th April 2009, [days after the new administration was elected], we asked Iller Bankasi [a public bank to support local administrations], to evaluate the current conditions of the water system. [See attachment 1 on the Belediye web page].

On 6th May 2009, it was reported that 5 of the pumps were out-of-order, and 3 running at reduced capacity, leaving us with just 1 properly working pump.  [See attachments 2 &3 on the Belediye web page].

Despite what has been rumoured, we have now finalised a 10 year issue in less than a month.  Unfortunately, this happened during the 2011 tourism season.  Our Mayor and administrative staff have worked very hard, bureaucracy permitting, so that the people of Kalkan wouldn’t suffer more.

As we didn’t know when these works would be finalised, we chose to make this statement once supplies were finally restored.

We sincerely apologise to the people of Kalkan, and all visitors for any inconvenience they might have faced.

Kalkan Belediyesi

You can see the original announcement, (in Turkish), together with all attachments, and pictures of the work done in Saklıkent, on the Kalkan Belediye website.

KTLN would like to thank Cenk Toparlakli for his assistance with translation.
 

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