Autonomous utilities have been created in the 16 metropolitan cities of Turkey and cost recovery has been increased, thus providing the basis for the sustainability of service provision.
[4]: 64–66 Remaining challenges include the need to further increase wastewater treatment, to reduce the high level of non-revenue water hovering around 50% and to expand access to adequate sanitation in rural areas.
53% of the wastewater, treated or not, was discharged into fresh surface water bodies, 39% to the sea, 1% to fields and 6% to another receiving environment.
For example, in 2007 a severe drought hit the entire Mediterranean coast as well as Central Anatolia and threatened the water supply of Istanbul and Ankara.
Local governments play a central role in the sector as service provider, partially mobilizing resources for investment financing from their own revenues and being responsible for the elaboration of location-specific Master Plans, feasibility studies and for the procurement of the necessary works.
[16][17] The 16 largest cities in Turkey each have legally separate and financially autonomous municipal water and sanitation companies called Su ve Kanalizasyon Idaresi (SKIs).
SKIs exist in the following metropolitan cities: Adana, ASKI – Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, ISKI – Istanbul, DISKI – Diyarbakir, Kayseri, Denizli, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, İzmir, Konya, Malatya, Mersin, Samsun, and Sanliurfa.
An exception is the lease contract in Antalya from 1996 to 2002, where a private company directly provided water and sewer services to customers.
In 1996 the city signed a lease contract with a private company to provide water and sanitation services for 10 years.
The decision to opt for a lease was taken on the advice of a UK consulting firm without an options study that would have compared different alternatives of private sector participation.
However, an important indicator, non-revenue water, stagnated at a high level of about 60%, while the private operator had aimed at reducing it to 30% within three years.
However, there were also successes: For example, funds provided through the World Bank loan contributed to increase the share of sewerage connections from zero in 1996 to 35% of the urbanized area in 2003.
[18] During the contract period the local government and the environmental authorities decided to substantially change the design of a planned wastewater treatment plant.
The original plan had foreseen only a mechanical wastewater treatment plant and a sea outfall, considered sufficient by the World Bank to protect the environment of the Bay of Antalya.
[18] The State Hydraulic Works (Turkish: Devlet Su İşleri or DSİ) is an agency under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry responsible for the utilization of country's water resources.
[21] The level of non-revenue water in Istanbul decreased from more than 50% prior to 1994 to 34% in 2000 due to large investments in pipe replacement.
[5] The major external partners of Turkey in water supply and sanitation are the European Union, France and Germany.
The European Union provides 134.3 million Euro of grants in 2007-09 for water supply and sanitation as part of its Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA).
In addition, an Environmental Framework Loan for Iller Bank estimated to reach Euro 150 million for water, sanitation and solid waste management was under preparation in 2010.
[24] France provides subsidized loans for municipal infrastructure in Turkish cities through the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
The first mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plant in a Turkish metropolitan city, commissioned in 1997 in Ankara, has been financed by German financial cooperation.
GIZ has supported capacity development of staff working in municipal utilities in commercial and technical aspects through a project implemented from 2002 to 2006 in cooperation with the training institute TODAIE.
[28] The Istanbul Municipal Services Project, supported through a US$336 million loan and approved in 2007, had 43% of its proceeds earmarked for water supply and sanitation.