Turkey allocates hydropower water rights to the highest bidder
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) allocates water rights for hydropower plants by tender to the highest bidder, the sources say. Draft water laws would allow such rights to be transferred for 49 years or leased for up to 10.
- Highest bidder in a DSİ hydropower tender (bidders not named in the sources reviewed) — Water right for a hydropower plant
What happened
State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) gives the water right for a hydropower plant to the highest bidder in a tender called the Hydroelectric Resource Contribution Fee (Kaynak Katkı Payı), the sources say.
Water law drafts proposed a transfer of water rights for 49 years in 2013 and a lease of up to 10 years in 2026, the sources say.
A Turkish Foreign Ministry press release of April 2006 is cited for the cancellation of a 2004 agreement to sell Manavgat River water to Israel.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
Insurers
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- None on record No record was found showing that a hydropower licence or water-use right was used for bottling.
- None on record The sources reviewed do not name any winning bidder, the price paid, or the rivers affected by these water rights.
- None on record The 2013 and 2026 water law texts are drafts; their status as law is not stated.
- None on record The sources reviewed give no link for the DSİ tender rules.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Press and investigations
- Press release on Manavgat River water sale to Israel (3-6 April 2006)Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs · 2006-04
Connected cases
- Alleged flow-meter manipulation at a Turkish hydropower plant on the Alakır river Turkey · date not stated
- State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) (Public authority) — here: Public authority that allocates hydropower water rights by tender; there: Subject of a 2017 criminal complaint over a flow-meter game at a hydropower plant (CNN Türk)
- Konya Closed Basin records over 740 sinkholes as crops rely on groundwater Turkey · 2025
- State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) (Public authority) — here: Public authority that allocates hydropower water rights by tender; there: Water authority that does not track pumping from licensed wells, according to the Court of Accounts