İzmir seeks cloud seeding to tackle worsening water crisis

İZMİR

Local authorities in the western province of İzmir have submitted a request to the Environment Ministry seeking permission to employ cloud seeding — widely referred to as artificial rain — as a targeted response to the region's prolonged drought and intensifying water shortages.

İzmir Mayor Cemil Tugay said the method aims to increase rainfall by enhancing precipitation from clouds already present over the city.

He explained that cloud seeding is claimed to raise rainfall levels by up to 25 percent, but noted that there is currently no company in Türkiye authorised or equipped to carry out the practice.

“We applied to the ministry, and they told us to take responsibility and proceed,” Tugay said. “We are looking for a company abroad. Once we find one and meet the necessary conditions, we will implement it.”

He stressed the project would only move forward once technical and legal requirements are fully met.

İzmir, the country’s third-largest city, has been experiencing increasingly dry conditions in recent years due to climate change, declining rainfall and rising temperatures.

Reservoir levels supplying the city have periodically fallen to critical thresholds.

Since last summer, the city has faced widespread planned or unplanned water cuts.

Proposed as a potential intervention to mitigate these shortages, cloud seeding is a weather modification technique intended to increase precipitation from clouds that already contain moisture. It typically involves dispersing substances into clouds using aircraft or ground-based systems.

However, the feasibility of this method in the region remains a subject of debate.

Professor Dr. Doğan Yaşar, an environmental expert from the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), described the plan as "unscientific” and “ineffective.”