Istanbul, Sep 26 (IANS): When Murat Uludag was a teenager about 40 years ago, there was so much water in central Turkey's Lake Kulu that it was dangerous to swim in it.

"This region used to be a sanctuary for 186 species of birds. Compared to the past, we only have a handful of birds left," lamented Uludag, a man in his mid-50s who now heads a local wildlife conservation group.

"If there's no water, there's no life," the ex-farmer told Xinhua news agency, pointing at a small flock of flamingos and ducks stubbornly packed together in the middle of a tight shoal in the lake.

Lake Kulu, by which Uludag grew up, is located some five km east of Konya Province's Kulu district. Once a haven for rose flamingos and other migratory birds on their way to Africa, it has already dried up due to groundwater overuse and climate change.

In the past, farmers in Kulu used to grow traditional crops like wheat and barley, but they later shifted to water-intensive crops like maize or beetroot, leading to aggressive use of groundwater which gradually dried up the creeks feeding the lake, Uludag said.

Lake Kulu is not alone in facing an uncertain future. According to figures released by the Turkey Nature Conservation Association on September 18, 186 out of 240 lakes in Turkey have entirely dried up over the past 60 years, while the remaining ones are at risk of drought and pollution.

Besides, authorities have reported hundreds of sinkholes in Konya Province, which are weakening the bedrock and threatening agriculture and human safety.

"One of the main issues in central Anatolia and the vast Konya plain is the proliferation of illegal wells drilled by farmers to irrigate water-intensive crops," Melih Ozbek, an Ankara-based scholar and a wildlife activist, told Xinhua.

Another reason is the change in agriculture in recent years, exacerbated by climate change that has resulted in erratic weather conditions and drought, Ozbek said.

There is an urgent need to create a plan involving all relevant parties and implement it with a shift in mindset, he said.

"People are unwilling to make sacrifices for something they cannot see. They will suffer more in the coming decades," he added.

Echoing Ozbek, Erol Kesici, a leading Turkish expert on water issues, warned that "there is not a single lake left in Turkey that we can point to as being in good condition."

"The problems are dire, with water levels, surface areas, pollution and oxygen depletion worsened; unfortunately, many of our natural lakes, formed millions of years ago, have suffered from severe drying in the past few decades," Kesici said.