Sequestering a River: The Political Ecology of the “Dead” Ergene River and Neoliberal Urbanization in Today’s Turkey

Abstract

This article explores the neoliberal authoritarian transformation of Turkey’s water sector since 2000 by examining the policies surrounding the Ergene River, a dead river that runs through Turkey’s European province of Thrace. Within the context of the accelerating neoliberalization of water resources in Thrace for the benefit of the Istanbul region at the expense of severe environmental pollution, the result was a combination of authoritarian policy prerogatives and priorities that rest on organized irresponsibility and a politics of nongovernance regarding environmental protection. As this article demonstrates, contemporary authoritarian neoliberalism in Turkey has created gray zones of authority involving many public authorities with varying and sometimes overlapping mandates, within which blatant breaches of the law became akin to the metropolitan municipal governance of distant water resources. Key Words: Ergene River, metropolitan municipality regimes, neoliberal urbanization, river pollution, Thrace region, Turkey.

本文通过检视围绕着额尔古纳河这条流经土耳其位于欧洲的色雷斯州的死河之政策, 探讨土耳其水资源部门自2000年以来的新自由主义威权转变。在加速色雷斯的水资源新自由主义化以嘉惠伊斯坦堡区域、并以严重的环境污染为代价的脉络中, 该结果是以组织化的不负责任为基础的威权政策特权与优先权和有关环境保护的非治理政治之组合。如同本文所证实, 土耳其当代的威权新自由主义, 已创造出涉及诸多公共职权的灰色权力地带, 并有着各种且有时相互重叠的命令, 其中公然违反法律, 近乎成为大都会市政府有关远距水资源的治理。 关键词: 额尔古纳河, 大都会市政体制, 新自由主义城市化, 河流污染, 色雷斯区域, 土耳其。

Este artículo explora la transformación autoritaria neoliberal del sector del agua de Turquía a partir del 2000 examinando las políticas relacionadas con el Río Ergene, una corriente muerta que fluye a través de la provincia europea de Tracia, en Turquía. En el contexto de una acelerada neoliberalización de los recursos hídricos de Tracia para beneficio de la región de Estambul, a expensas de severa contaminación ambiental, el resultado fue una combinación de prerrogativas políticas autoritarias y prioridades que descansan sobre la irresponsabilidad organizada y una política de desgobierno en lo que concierne a la protección ambiental. Como se demuestra en este artículo, el neoliberalismo autoritario contemporáneo en Turquía ha creado zonas grises de autoridad que involucran a muchas autoridades públicas, con mandatos variados y a veces traslapados, dentro de los cuales las descaradas burlas a la ley se asemejan a la gobernanza municipal metropolitana aplicada a los distantes recursos del agua.

Palabras clave:

• municipalidad metropolitana
• polución fluvial
• regímenes
• región de Tracia
• Río Ergene
• Turquía
• urbanización neoliberal.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Audrey Kobayashi, Ariel Salzmann at Queen’s University, Elif Ekin Akşit Vural and Hasan Vural at Ankara University, and the anonymous reviewers for reading and commenting on this article. The empirical study in this article is part of the author’s dissertation. It is dedicated to the memory of the author’s father, Altan Acara (1930–2014).

Notes

1 The Walkerton and Flint catastrophes are among such examples.

2 For an earlier account of industrial policies in Turkey, see Sönmez (1996).

3 For increasing cancer due to air pollution in Dilovası of Kocaeli, see Hamzaoglu et al. (2014).

4 For more on the estimates, see İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality 2009, 2015).

5 For a parliamentary question regarding the matter, see Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (Grand National Assembly of Turkey 2007).

6 Thrace is among the regions with rapidly increasing housing prices since 2016 (Şat Sezgin and Aşarkaya 2017) in addition to having some of the most rapidly increasing housing prices compared to rents (TCMB [Central Bank of Turkey] 2017).

7 The drinking water was infected by Escherichia coli, affecting 2,300 residents of Walkerton (Prudham 2004).

8 She was a retired expert who, at the time of the interview, was employed by the Ministry of Development to transfer her knowledge to incoming personnel.

9 For reports about the extreme pollution in the Ergene River during the 1990s, see Artüz (1990). Reports after 2000 include TBMM Araştırma Komisyonu (Research Commission of the Grand National Assembly 2003); Çevre ve Orman Bakanlığı (Ministry of Environment and Forestry 2003, 2006, 2010); and Olgun and Çobanoğlu (2012). See the study by Ekmekyapar, Karabulut, and Meriç Pagano (2011) in Tekirdağ, Thrace, about contamination of drinking water wells by industrial zones; see Yorulmaz et al. (2012) for a cancer-scan research study.

10 Water from the Ergene River is still used in some parts of the region (Kılıç 2011). From my limited observations, the upper waters of the river remain an irrigation source in Uzunköprü.

11 Çevre Yönetimi Müdürlükleri (The General Directorate for Environmental Management), Çevre Etki Değerlendirme ve Planlama Genel Müdürlüğü (General Directorate for Environmental Impact Assessment and Planning), and Çevre ve Orman İl Genel Müdürlükleri (the Provincial Directorates of Environment and Forestry) or private consultant firms designated by MoEUP are among the local water pollution monitoring systems under the mandate of MoEUP and the MoFWA (“Regulation on monitoring water pollution” 2004; “Regulation on environmental inspection” 2008).

12 See Türkerler (2017).

13 In the Tenth National Development Plan (2014–2018), management of the Ergene River basin was specifically cited to be an exemplary project of opportunity for environmental investment (Kalkınma Bakanlığı [Ministry of Development] 2013).

14 This was an off-record interview with an expert who, at the time of the interview, was working at a government institution.

15 This was also off-record information. Some officers in the ministries and DSI responsible for leaking documents were later reappointed to distant branches of the institution.

16 This was an expression used by one of the experts at the water-related government institution.

17 The AKP’s social welfare policies, based on family and social solidarity networks, continues to be a major issue of inquiry. Critical work in this area evaluates these social policies as political technologies to contain growing urban informality and dispossession. For more, see Atasoy (2009), Yılmaz (2013, 2015), Doğan and Yılmaz (2011), and Demirtaş-Milz (2013). See Bayırbağ (2013) for the rise of the charity state at the hands of the municipalities.

18 For outcries, see Gökçen (2010) and İtez (2016).

19 Three of the former and two of the current municipality employees emphasized that there was a direct order from the prime minister.

20 The plan is known as the Revisioned Environmental Plan of the Ergene River Basin in Thracian Sub-Region, presented at a scale of 1/100,000. This plan continues to be a polarizing issue that causes conflict between various planning parties. For a recent example of such conflict, see Türkmen (2017).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship (Award No. 752-2012-1485), Queen’s University Dean’s Travel Fund, and American Association of Geographers Thesis Dissertation Award.

Notes on contributors

Eda Acara

EDA ACARA is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Baskent University, Ankara, 06790 Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]. She is also an affiliated Researcher and Lecturer in the Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments program at Middle East Technical University. She carried out much of the research for this article while completing her PhD in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. Her research interests include the effects of neoliberalization processes across the rural–urban nexus.