Market brief
Turkey
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Turkey, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for TurkeyMarket snapshot
The commercial picture in Turkey: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Percentile among all countries; higher is more stable.
Investment climate
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkActive (municipal & hydropower)
- Tracked pipelineUS$ 2.5 bn in our projects register
- Active fundersDomestic banks, EBRD
- Climate adaptation planAdopted (2024)
Opportunities
- Irrigation modernisation (GAP region)
- Municipal wastewater & reuse
- Hydropower & storage
- Digital basin management
Key challenges
- Upstream position on Euphrates–Tigris (regional diplomacy)
- Basin-level scarcity in the south-east
- Rapid urban demand
- Agricultural efficiency
Sources: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports (latest available); World Bank 2023–24. Figures approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2024).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Turkey. Ministries set policy and sign the offtake; utilities run the assets; regulators set the tariff and the service standard.
- Ministry of Agriculture & ForestryMinistry
- Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation & Climate ChangeMinistry
- Municipal Water & Sewerage Administrations (İSKİ, ASKİ, İZSU…)Utility
- General Directorate of Water ManagementBasin & resources authority
- General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSİ)Irrigation & drainage
- İller Bankası (Ilbank)Infrastructure delivery
How deals are structured
The framework in Turkey is Active (municipal & hydropower), the schemes we track carry US$ 2.5 bn of disclosed value, and the funders most active in the sector are Domestic banks, EBRD, World Bank.
Delivery splits by asset class across the region: dams and trunk conveyance are mostly engineering contracts carried by sovereign or development-bank finance; bulk supply increasingly uses build-operate-transfer concessions against a long-term offtake; and distribution work is let as performance-based contracts paid against measured leakage reduction. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
The projects register bears this out. Of the 22 tracked schemes in Turkey, 1 names a concession structure in the finance note; the rest record only where the money came from, which is not the same as saying they were not concessions.
How to bid
Türkiye is the largest functioning water procurement market in the region, and the rule that decides whether a foreign firm can bid at all is Article 63 of the public procurement law: below the threshold value an authority may restrict a tender to domestic bidders, and works and service tenders may give domestic bidders a price advantage of up to 15%.1 For the year from 1 February 2026 the works threshold is TRY 686,924,429, uprated by the December 2025 producer price change of 27.67%.3 Most municipal water contracts sit below it.
| Procuring bodies | The State Hydraulic Works for dams, conveyance, irrigation, groundwater and flood works, through its regional directorates; the metropolitan water and sewerage administrations for distribution, treatment and networks; and the municipalities’ bank as lender and implementing agency for internationally financed schemes.678 |
|---|---|
| Route | Three procedures under the procurement law: open tender, restricted tender after pre-qualification, and negotiated procedure. Concessions run under the 1994 build-operate-transfer law.12 |
| The way in for a foreign bidder | Article 3(c) exempts works under external financing agreements that set their own rules, so contracts funded by the development banks run on the lender’s procurement rules rather than on the domestic-preference regime.1 |
| Bonds and complaints | A bid bond of at least 3% of the bid price, in lira, as a bank guarantee or a foreign bank’s letter counter-guaranteed by a bank licensed in Türkiye. Complaints go to the authority within five or ten days depending on the procedure, before signature, and then to the public procurement authority.1 |
| Concession terms | A build-operate-transfer concession is expressly subject to private law, runs to a maximum of 49 years, and covers dams, irrigation, drinking water, treatment and sewerage. The law authorises state guarantees for payments owed to the project company by public bodies, and requires a late-payment interest clause.2 |
| Loss obligation | The water-loss regulation, as amended in 2019, sets calendar-year targets rather than rolling deadlines: metropolitan and provincial municipalities to 30% by 2023 and 25% by 2028, others to 35%, 30% and 25% by 2023, 2028 and 2033. That obligation is what drives municipal capital spending.4 |
| Tax | Withholding on progress payments for construction spanning more than one calendar year is 5%, cut to 1% for rail and shipbuilding by a presidential decision of March 2025.9 |
Two dated transactions show where the money comes from: a EUR 42 million sovereign loan from EBRD in February 2026 for a 75,000 cubic metre a day treatment plant at Osmaniye with anaerobic digestion and biogas recovery, and EUR 200 million signed with the Islamic Development Bank in July 2025 for municipal infrastructure, both implemented through the municipalities’ bank.78 The National Water Plan for 2026 to 2035 was approved by Presidential Decision 11063 and gazetted on 14 March 2026.5 What could not be established: the performance bond percentage, procurement portal registration steps and fees, the joint-venture test under Article 63, and arbitration practice.
Regulatory intelligence
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Water Plan 2026–2035 | Adopted | 2026 | Loss, per-capita use and irrigation efficiency targets to 2050. |
| National Drought Management Strategy | Adopted | 2017 | Basin drought management plans. |
| Groundwater law | In force | 1960 | DSİ explores, allocates and registers groundwater; Konya's wells the test case. |
| 1987 Euphrates protocol | Contested | 1987 | 500 m³/s annual average at the Syrian border. |
| Iraq water framework and financing mechanism | In implementation | 2024/2025 | Turkish-built projects in Iraq paid through Iraqi oil. |
Primary reference: DSİ; transboundary practice is seasonal and politically sensitive.
Projects
Tracked schemes in Turkey, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
22 tracked in total. The full set, filterable, is in the major projects register.
Track record
What has actually been signed in Turkey, from the awards log and the major projects register.
Disclosed value by year
US$ bn of tracked awards in Turkey carrying a published value
9 further awards in this sector carry no published value and are not in the chart.
| Year | Project | Winning firms | US$ m |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 on line | Melen Water Supply System | Limak | n/a |
| 2026 | Melen Dam completion works | Limak | n/a |
| 2023 on line | Cizre Dam and Hydroelectric Plant | CB Elektrik Uretim Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S | n/a |
| 2022 on line | Tuzla Wastewater Treatment Plant | Kuzu Grup | n/a |
| 2018 on line | Yenikapı Wastewater Treatment Plant | Fisia Italimpianti (Webuild) in joint venture with Alkatas and Alke | n/a |
| 2015 on line | Ataköy Wastewater Treatment Plant | WTE Wassertechnik (original plant, turnkey, 2010); Fisia Italimpianti, Webuild Group | n/a |
| 2012 on line | Ambarlı Wastewater Treatment Plant | Consortium led by PWT Wasser- und Abwassertechnik | n/a |
| 2008 on line | Ilısu Dam and Hydroelectric Plant | IC Ilisu consortium: Nurol Insaat and Cengiz Insaat (civil), Celikler Insaat, Andritz Hydro | n/a |
| 2000 on line | Paşaköy Wastewater Treatment Plant | Kuzu Grup | n/a |
| 1995 on line | Birecik Dam and Hydroelectric Plant | Philipp Holzmann, Strabag and GAMA (Birecik A.S. consortium, about 43% of the shares); TEAS held 30% | 1,090 |
| 1995 on line | Karkamış Dam and Hydroelectric Plant | Consortium including Yuksel Insaat | 176 |
| 1983 on line | Atatürk Dam and Hydroelectric Plant | ATA Insaat consortium; turbines Sulzer Escher Wyss; generators ABB | 1,250 |
Years without a label are award years from the curated log; rows marked on line are dated by commissioning, from the projects register. 12 rows in total for Turkey.
Repeat winners
- Kuzu Grup2 tracked awards
- Limak2 tracked awards
Firms or consortia appearing on two or more tracked awards in Turkey.
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Turkey, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~$0.85 | not published | 2026 | İSKİ published schedule (archived copy) |
Istanbul’s first residential block is TRY 35.26/m³ for water excluding VAT, with wastewater adding 17.62, on the utility’s 2026 schedule; the 2025 figure was 33.96. Blocks are not marginal: the whole month prices at the band reached. Of every 2.5 m³ consumed, 0.5 m³ goes unbilled up to the first 15 m³. The dollar figure moves sharply with the lira.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
No dated items have been carried forward for Turkey yet. This section fills from the monthly briefings as they are published.
Sources
14 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- Public Procurement Law No. 4734 (Türkiye), consolidated official text.
- Law No. 3996 on build-operate-transfer (Türkiye), consolidated official text.
- Public Procurement Authority communiqué 2026/1, Resmî Gazete of 22 January 2026, for the threshold values.
- Regulation on the control of water losses in drinking water supply and distribution systems, consolidated text as amended in 2019.
- Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, announcement of the National Water Plan 2026–2035.
- State Hydraulic Works, departments and regional directorates.
- EBRD, support for critical infrastructure in Turkish cities, 20 February 2026.
- Islamic Development Bank, EUR 200 million municipal infrastructure financing, 2 July 2025.
- PwC Türkiye, on the withholding rate for multi-year construction progress payments, 2 April 2025.
- FAO, AQUASTAT — Global Information System on Water and Agriculture: country water resources, withdrawals by sector and dam register. fao.org/aquastat. Latest country values as compiled at build.
- World Bank, World Development Indicators and country water-sector reporting. data.worldbank.org.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2024 update — political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- World Resources Institute, Aqueduct 4.0 Water Risk Atlas (2023) — the sub-basin risk, stress and groundwater-decline layers on the interactive maps. wri.org/aqueduct.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.