Turkey's president says parliament working on new water law

Turkey's president said Monday that parliament is continuing its work on a new national water law.

"We are preparing a water law in parliament in order to reach our goals more quickly and prevent conflicts in water management," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech given virtually to the opening ceremonies of five water-related projects in four cities.

"We see no essential difference between protecting our water and protecting our homeland," he continued.

Erdogan underlined that during its nearly two decades in power, his government put into service "600 dams, 423 ponds, 590 hydroelectric power plants, 1,457 irrigation facilities, and 262 drinking water facilities," representing a total investment of 277 billion liras ($31.9 billion).