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Video length: 3 mins.
Gigantic holes forming in the ground, sinkholes are more and more numerous in the region of Konya, Turkey. According to scientists, they are caused by the drop in groundwater levels, where farmers pump water.
In the immense full of Anatolia (Turkey), suddenly, a hole. It’s called a doline, a 30-meter-deep chasm with geometric outlines, which, seen from above, seems to be drawn with a compass. Souleiman is a farmer in the Konya region. He lives very close to the sinkhole, but is approaching it for the first time since its formation. Two years ago, the ground collapsed suddenly. “We are not afraid because we ended up getting used to it. There are sinkholes all over the country”says a nearby resident.
A problem related to agriculture?
From 2 to sometimes more than 100 meters in diameter, 10 to 15 sinkholes form per year in the region, ten times more than 20 years ago. For a scientist who identifies them, the drop in the level of groundwater which is in question. The Konya region is Turkey’s breadbasket, with fields of wheat, barley and alfalfa.
Souleiman must pump in the water tables, but say that by force, he sees the ground collapsing. “The government has decided to ban farmers from digging new wells, but it is not enforcing this measure. There would be 100,000 wells in the region, of which only a third would be declared“, concludes the journalist Agnès Vahramian.