Dry Water

Hande Aydın

Hande Aydın's novel Dry Water (Kuru Su)⁴ is about a real river. A hydroelectric power plant (HEPP) is built on the Melet River which runs through the Mesudiye district of the province of Ordu in the Eastern Black See region. The HEPP dries out the river in a very short time and causes serious ecological destruction. The book is also the story of a woman who rebels against this human-made devastation, against the destruction of living space and resources and starts to show resistance against the HEPPs. The story is also about women's struggle and women's solidarity.

Melet River

The first HEPP project on the Melet River was launched in 2006. Later, nine more HEPPs using Melet's water were built. In addition to the Kozbükü and Topçam HEPPs built in 2017, a new HEPP was planned to be built in 2020. In addition to the HEPPs, a basalt quarry and a crushing and screening plant are also on the agenda in an area of 69,3 hectares in the south of the Mesudiye district⁵. The license for gold exploration with cyanide was obtained in a huge area of twenty million square meters in the district of Perşembe (Ordu province), which is a Slow City⁶. In the region resistance continues against the destruction of living space and vital resources.

(...) Millions of spruce went along from the Georgian border on the Black Sea ridges ended on the East side of the 61 km long riverbed. For months thousands of spruce had been saluting, like soldiers unable to cry, the rivers which had been drying out one after the other from the Çoruh River to this region, and the other pine trees that had been cut already. Now it was the spruce's turn that cast their shadow on the river Melet.. Construction machines had cut the thirty kilometers of the river like a gangrenous arm. What was left to the spruce was dead fish, carcasses of lizards and frogs... The dust of the concrete thrown away somewhere nearby every day covered their leaves. The squirrels, who had escaped from the slaughter during the first explosions months ago, had sought shelter in their dusty branches. Then the forest started to explode at regular intervals. From the very deep, huge pieces of rock, which the spruce had not even known they existed, were thrown up into the sky. For months the spruce had only been blinking to each other. Squirrels, waterfowl, butterflies... Every creature that could escape had fled. Only the spruce, together with the firs in the west, refused to be comforted by rain; they were waiting for their life-giving river Melet to return.

It was not the first time evil came to the forest. From time to time villagers had come with saws to plant hazelnut trees. Hundreds of conifers had become ashes before they could understand what was happening because of a fire the origin of which was unknown. Tons of factory waste had been filled into the river; bottles, plastics, bags ... In the darkness of the night, their bodies of some trees had been riddled by bullets that came out of drunken men's weapons; in some the bullets could still be seen like veteran's medals. But the spruce had never seen the river gods be so helpless against evil.

"That" morning the sun rose to start the third week during which river Melet was without water. The sun came eye to eye with the world at 40 ° 18' -41 ° 08' N and 36 ° 52'-35 ° 12'E. A naked woman was running along the river bed abandoned by the river gods...

May 2012⁷

The local people inform about the ecological damage in the Melet River region: https://yeryuzundenhaberler.com/hesler-meleti-de-kuruttu/, Yeryüzünden Haberler sitesi. Accessed 03.08.2020.

Projects realised in Turkey causing ecological destruction during the coronavirus time listed by Ecology Association: https://yesilgazete.org/blog/2020/05/04/koronavirus-salgini-firsat-bilinerek-gerceklestirilen-54-ekolojik-yikim/ Yeşil Gazete. Accessed on 03.08.2020.

The local people inform about the ecological damage in the Melet River region: https://yeryuzundenhaberler.com/hesler-meleti-de-kuruttu/, Yeryüzünden Haberler sitesi. Accessed 03.08.2020.

Projects realised in Turkey causing ecological destruction during the coronavirus time listed by Ecology Association: https://yesilgazete.org/blog/2020/05/04/koronavirus-salgini-firsat-bilinerek-gerceklestirilen-54-ekolojik-yikim/ Yeşil Gazete. Accessed on 03.08.2020.