Speaking at the 2nd Mesopotamia Water Forum hosted by Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, Co-Mayor Serra Bucak said they would implement the roadmap emerging from the forum.

Organised in cooperation with the Mesopotamia Water Forum and the Mesopotamia Ecology Movement, the forum is continuing on its third day at the Çand Amed Culture and Congress Centre. Workshops bringing together environmental activists, academics and civil society representatives from many countries were attended by Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Doğan Hatun, along with Deputy Chief Executive Zerin Türk.

Addressing the workshops, Deputy Chief Executive Zerin Türk said all villages, districts and municipalities along riverbanks should form a union: “Local authorities bear a major responsibility in this regard. We would like to state that we are ready to assume this responsibility. But one pillar of this is, of course, diplomacy. We need to organise diplomacy from the local level.”

Co-Mayor Bucak: The forum is charting a roadmap

Co-Mayor Serra Bucak began by thanking all those who contributed to organising the forum, describing it as highly valuable work. She noted that the outcome declarations to be announced today would, without doubt, place strong obligations on local governments. She continued:

“As local government conscious of this responsibility—as local administrators from the DEM Party—there is, of course, the rush to catch up in all areas that comes with being elected again in our cities after ten years, and at the same time we must develop policies for many areas that have been damaged and left to us as a wreck. But it is not enough merely to develop policy. We have a responsibility to put those policies into practice. We are aware of this.

“Movements and networks such as yours—national, international and local efforts—give us hope. They do more than give hope; they also chart a roadmap. Each of us, from our own geographies, has expressed how important community-based, people-centred organisations and an ecological perspective are; how vital it is to protect our land and our water; and how important it is to articulate an alternative position—an anti-capitalist, anti-corporate stance—on these matters.”

‘We must not wait for the next forum to make progress’

Emphasising that the forum’s conclusions must be put into practice, Co-Mayor Bucak said: “We describe ourselves as local authorities that are people-centred and community-minded. Naturally, that places binding responsibilities upon us—and I wish to underline this. I attach great importance to this sense of obligation; it will also serve as our roadmap. Through the networks we will establish in Amed, and by forming a network of local governments across our region—beginning with Amed—we will give this work a central place in protecting our water and our soil, and in shaping the course of what we do next.

“I extend my thanks to all friends who have carried these valuable discussions over the past three days—how good that you are here. One colleague said, ‘We should not wait for the next water forum to make progress.’ I agree. There is no need to wait for the next water forum. An important roadmap has emerged here. What matters is to implement it, as swiftly as possible, in our own cities and localities. From here, we give that undertaking.”

Co-Mayor Bucak later visited the exhibition opened as part of the Mesopotamia Water Forum.