Applicability of Underground Dams in Turkey and Evaluation of the "Underground Dams Action Plan"

The "Underground Dams Action Plan" (YEP) is a project announced to the public by the Minister of Agriculture on July 22, 2019, with the slogans "100 underground dams in honour of the 100th th anniversary of the Republic" and "local and underground storage". According to this action plan carried out by the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI), it was planned to construct at least 100 groundwater dams and groundwater artificial recharge facilities in various regions of Turkey between 2019 and 2023. Although there are suitable sites for such projects in our country, there are some problems in the implementation of the action plan. As of the beginning of the YEP, due to the limited experience in groundwater dams and groundwater artificial recharge methods in Turkey, there may be some failures in selection of the suitable sites, implementing the most appropriate project, and operating-maintenance. The limited time and score target determined by the decision makers in the project are the issues that can force the practitioners to make mistakes by acting hastily. However, it is expected that the necessary lessons will be learned by engineers, managers and senior decision makers from the existing examples in Turkey and in the world, so that the applications will be realized with the least mistakes. Despite some problems mentioned above, it will be extremely beneficial to transfer the experiences to be gained from the YEP to the projects to be implemented in the future, in terms of success and also failure.