ANKARA, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye's new southeastern Mardin-Ceylanpinar canal that stretches from the "Ataturk Dam" in Sanliurfa province to Mardin province on Wednesday started supplying water to nearly 50,261 hectares of agricultural land, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.
The 221-kilometer-long canal is constructed within the scope of the Southeastern Anatolia Project, a multi-sector integrated regional development project.
The canal will allow the farmers to harvest crops three times a year and boost their income amid the current water shortage due to climate change in the country, the agency reported.
The canal, which costs 2 billion Turkish liras (about 75 million U.S. dollars), will irrigate the agricultural fields of the region, which provides nearly 35 percent of Türkiye's grain needs.
"Thanks to the irrigation channels, electricity consumption will decrease. Farmers will be relieved, and production will increase," Anadolu quoted Mehmet Serif Oter, head of the Grain Trade Center of Kiziltepe district in Mardin, as saying.
Oter added that the canal could provide employment for approximately 300,000 people.
The Mardin-Ceylanpinar canal is the longest artificial river in Türkiye, longer than the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, according to the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
