Water policies and management in Türkiye in terms of environmental security

Water resources are of fundamental importance for the sustainability of life. However, factors such as population growth, industrialization, climate change, and the mismanagement of water resources have created serious pressures on water and transformed it into a strategic environmental security issue. In this study, the significance of water policies and water management within the framework of environmental security has been examined. In the first section, the evolving concept of security and the understanding of environmental security are discussed; the impacts of environmental problems on national and international security are analyzed. In the second section, the concept of water is explored in detail; the issues of drinking water, wastewater, access to clean water, water crises, and water scarcity are examined. In the third section, the water policies and water resources management strategies implemented worldwide and in Turkey are discussed, and successful country examples are compared through a comparative analysis. In the fourth section, the critical role of water in terms of environmental security is addressed; the relationship between water scarcity, the right to access water, and environmental security is analyzed with specific examples from Turkey. In the conclusion, it is emphasized that water is not only an environmental resource but also a fundamental component of economic, social and political stability, and strategies for sustainable water management and environmental security in Turkey are proposed. This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding that the protection and management of water resources must be evaluated from the perspective of environmental security.