New basin institutions and legislative arrangements in integrated river basin management in Turkey: a case of the Nizip stream catchment area

Abstract

The integrated river basin management (IRBM) approach is widely used by the European Union members and candidate countries on account of the obligations of the European Commission (EC) Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC). Turkey, as a candidate country, is carrying out compliance activities that cover legislative and institutional arrangements in IRBM. The aim of this paper is to posit and assess the Turkish legislation and institutional structures related to water and environment in the context of the implementation of IRBM and WFD in the Nizip stream catchment area (NizCat), located in the south-west of the Euphrates and Tigris river basin in Turkey. After assessing the current policy, and legal and institutional structures, the revision of the structure of River Basin Committee and the foundation of new institutions (Association of NizCat at local level, and Ministry of Environment, Water and Forestry Affairs at the national level) was recommended. With respect to the legislative aspect, a proposal was forwarded, insisting that the existing discharge standards be reorganized as basin-based discharge standards for each basin instead of the sectoral ones, in order to improve the current situations qualitatively.