Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Activities industry

11.6 billion TL in industry value added in 2017

As the current state of the Turkish economy is at expansion stage on the business cycle, TurkAnalitik expects that the Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Activities industry is experiencing high levels of demand for its products as the continuing economic growth, urbanization and increasing population are keeping the demand for industry's products and services high. Urbanization has been occurring quite fast paced in Turkey. For instance, the level of municipal population served by sewerage system was about 43 million in 2001 and it reached approximately to 67 million in 2016. 

The industry is one of the largest industries in Turkish economy in terms of industry's value added and turnover. In 2017, the industry generated about 35.8 billion Tl in turnover. The industry's total output (value added at factor costs) in 2017, from its 4,072 enterprises and 100,2963 employees was over 11.6 billion TL.

Emerging threats

Turkey is one of the most vulnerable countries in Europe and Central Asia to climate change. a range of climate modelling studies indicate that Turkey will get hotter, more arid and unstable in terms of precipitation patterns in the near future. According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), regional and global simulations project an increase in duration and intensity of drought in Mediterranean Region. Therefore, it is expected that climate change would inevitably make water a very sensitive and critical issue, which poses a potential problem to Turkish economy in the long-run.

Waste management

There are various agencies with authority and responsibility for solid waste management in Turkey and these are set out in the laws of the institutions to which they relate. In municipalities, a dedicated unit or service partnerships affiliated with local governments are responsible for the installation and operation of the necessary waste collection infrastructure. In villages, the establishment and operation of the solid waste infrastructure is the responsibility of the provincial administration. 

Since the early 2000s, in parallel with Turkish economy's growth, the rate of population served by municipal waste services in total population has been increasing continuously. As is seen from the following chart, the rate of population served by municipal waste services in total population reached to 93 per cent in 2016 from its level of 75 per cent in 2001. During the same period, municipal population served by sewerage system has  also increased from about 43 million in 2001 to 65 million in 2016, reflecting the exponential growth in urbanization in Turkey and the Government policies' focus on infrastructure development.