Two years of general drought in Turkey increased deprivation of the country’s poorest population. Without water to drink or irrigate crops, the nearly 70 thousand inhabitants of the agricultural district of Suruç suffer the effects of the climate changes. The rain, already scarce in the Middle East, occurs less often according to the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The region received an impulse for economical development with the “Suruç Plain Irrigation”, project of the Southeastern Anatolia Program (GAP), which will irrigate over 94 thousand hectares.
Supplying eight medium-voltage asynchronous motors, WEG equips the pumps that will take water from the Atatürk dam, located in the Euphrates River, to the irrigation canal.
The 20-year relationship with the partner Dal-Group, from the electric industry, allowed the participation of the company in this project. The distributor supplied to the final customer Samsun Makina Sanayi (SMS), from the infrastructure and irrigation sector.
Besides the canal, the fifth largest tunnel in the world is under construction designed to transport 90 tons of water per second along its seventeen kilometers. The objective is to provide the fields with fertile conditions and also guarantee water for human consumption in Suruç City and 135 residential areas that form the district. “This project is very important for Turkey, since it aims at stimulating the migration to the northeast of the country, thus relieving big cities and improving the population’s income and life quality in the region”, explains the Sales and Service Manager of Dal-Group, Özer Ertokmac.
In the Suruç region, the irrigated agriculture has been adopted in some simple crops and in the industrial production, thus increasing the culture in some plains. The works of the irrigation canal, started in March 2009, is in the excavation phase and must be completed by the end of the year.
Development
32 billion is the estimated investment of the GAP, similar to the Brazilian Growth Acceleration Program (PAC). Energy, irrigation, social infrastructure and international cooperation are the base of the program.
Among the works, below are some important items:
22 Dams
19 Power Plants
1,7 Milion hectares irrigated
Logistics
The motors were manufactured in Brazil and transported, in May last year, in a special truck up to the Itajaí Port, where they departed in containers to the Mersin Harbor, in Turkey. Each motor is 4m tall and weighs 34 tons.
