According to the Bank’s website, the objective of this project is to improve water use efficiency and enhance flood resilience in the target regions of Turkiye by sustainably expanding climate-resilient irrigation systems and implementing flood protection infrastructure through investments that safeguard livelihoods and agricultural area and enhance the long-term climate-resilience of local communities.

While contributing to approximately 5% of GDP, the agriculture sector in Turkiye remains a vital component of the economy that sustains food security, rural livelihoods and exports. This sector is heavily dependent on irrigation, which triples productivity compared with rain-fed agriculture. The sector faces significant challenges: climate variability increasingly causes droughts and floods that disrupt production, and aging irrigation infrastructure limits efficient water use and delivery. Over the past 40 years, successive national governments have tried to mitigate the uneven distribution of water resources and rainfall by increasing access to irrigation, because of which the gross irrigated area has grown from 2.3 million hectares in the 1970s to about 6 million hectares today. Expansion and modernization of irrigation, along with other investments for increasing agricultural productivity, remain a priority agenda for Turkiye.

To address these challenges Turkiye had put in place a comprehensive water efficiency and climate adaptation program supported by the World Bank and a few other key development partners through interventions in various sub-sectors, but the needs of the country for sustainable water infrastructure are rapidly increasing. Above all, Turkiye plans to rehabilitate its irrigation system, prevent climate induced floods, minimize non-revenue water, enhance its water storage capacity, increase the very low water reuse levels, and reduce water pollution especially in the industrial sector.

Turkiye's 12th Development Plan (2024-2028) and DSI Strategic Plan (2024-2028) outlay six priority areas: (a) drinking, utility and industrial water; (b) flood management; (c) effective and efficient use of water; (d) research, improvement and monitoring of water resources; (e) hydroelectric energy; and (f) institutional capacity for the next five years. The proposed RBP is designed to finance a slice of the overall Strategic Plan and will include two major components in support of the DSI Strategic Plan: (a) upgrading irrigation services for optimized water use efficiency and (b) strengthening climate resilience of the flood protection and management infrastructure, people and land in the flood-prone areas.

Climate change also intensifies droughts and floods, causing a general decrease in total precipitation, mostly in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions, and an increase in dry days in the Central Anatolia to Aegean regions. Several regions of Turkiye remain highly susceptible to seasonal floods, often resulting in widespread damage to agricultural fields, infrastructure and residential areas. High rainfall is anticipated in the region of the Black Sea coast which is surrounded by steep mountains. Flood damage in these areas has worsened impacts by intense rainfall events, urban expansion, soil degradation and inadequate flood-management infrastructure.

Consequently, the Government of Turkiye plans to (a) modernize irrigation infrastructure to promote climate-resilient, water-efficient irrigation systems and (b) enhance flood protection capacity through the development and rehabilitation of flood protection infrastructure. These objectives are aligned with the Government's 12th Development Plan (2024-2028) and DSI Strategic Plan (2024-2028) and are based on the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action plan (2024-2030) and Water Efficiency Strategy (2023-2030).

By expanding modern irrigation systems and strengthening flood protection capacity, the proposed Results-Based Program (RBP) will make Turkiye's water management systems more efficient, resilient and sustainable. The RBP will be implemented in five years. The financing for the RBP will link disbursements to measurable outcomes such as land areas with climate-resilient irrigation services, climate-resilient infrastructure erected, and enhanced flood protection for safeguarding livelihoods, land and people.

As per AIIB's ESP, this RBP has been categorized as Category B because the potential environmental and social (ES) risks and impacts of the RBP are low and limited. Category A activities and other activities that are likely to have significant adverse impacts that are sensitive, diverse or unprecedented on the environment and/or Project-affected people, are not eligible for financing under the RBF and are excluded from the RBP.

Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts: Potential environmental risks and impacts include temporary and localized air, noise and dust pollution; generation of construction waste; soil erosion and water pollution during construction. Occupational health and safety risks would result from construction activities and increased traffic. Operation phase risks may involve water depletion, waterlogging, salinization, increased agrochemical runoff, biodiversity impacts and changes to natural flood regimes. Potential social adverse impacts of irrigation and flood control sub-projects under the RBP may include economic and physical displacements of local farmer households due to land acquisition, labor and working condition concerns and community health and safety risks such as dust, noise, pollution, traffic and waste discharges during construction by the contractors. In addition, the sub-projects under the RBP would have adverse gender impacts if not carefully designed. The sub-projects under the RBP would reduce women's economic opportunities, especially when their agricultural lands are acquired for the construction of schemes under the RBP or when women are excluded from decision-making bodies and Water User Associations.

Total Government Program Cost: USD10.4 billion
AIIB Loan: USD500 million
Government Contribution: USD227 million

CONTACT INFORMATION

PROJECT TEAM LEADER
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Drazen Kucan - Senior Investment Officer
drazen.kucan@aiib.org

BORROWER
Republic of Türkiye
Pelin Koklu Arslan - Ministry of Treasury and Finance, Government of Türkiye
pelin.arslan@hmb.gov.tr

IMPLEMENTING ENTITY
General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI)
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Muhammed Imran Kulat - General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI)
kulat@dsi.gov.tr

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.aiib.org/en/contact/information-request/index.html

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AIIB

The AIIB has established the Accountability Mechanism for Project-Affected People (PPM). The PPM provides Òan opportunity for an independent and impartial review of submissions from Project-affected people who believe they have been or are likely to be adversely affected by AIIBÕs failure to implement the ESP in situations when their concerns cannot be addressed satisfactorily through Project level GRMs or AIIB Management processes.Ó Two or more project-affected people can file a complaint. Under the current AIIB policy, when the bank co-finances a project with another development bank, it may apply the other bank's standards. You can refer to the Project Summary Information document to find out which standards apply. You can learn more about the PPM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.aiib.org/en/about-aiib/who-we-are/project-affected-peoples-mechanism/how-we-assist-you/index.html

The complaint submission form can be accessed in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Chinese, English, Tagalog, Hindi, Nepali, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu. The submission form can be found at: https://www.aiib.org/en/about-aiib/who-we-are/project-affected-peoples-mechanism/submission/index.html