21.01.2026 01:12
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay announced that they have applied to the ministry for artificial rain implementation in the fight against drought. Emphasizing that this method increases rainfall by 25%, Tugay stated that there is no company working on this in Turkey and that they will implement the application when they find a company abroad.
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay announced that they have applied to the ministry for artificial rain implementation as part of the fight against drought. Tugay stated, "They call it seeding, it is done with clouds that have come over the city. There is a method that ensures condensation, it is said to increase rainfall by 25%, but there is no official application in Turkey. We applied to the ministry, they said, 'Take responsibility and do it.' We are researching, there is no company doing this in Turkey, but when we find one abroad, we will do this as well," he said.
"WE GOT PERMISSION FOR CLOUD SEEDING"
In a television program, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay stated that they want to implement the artificial rain method used in Gulf countries in Izmir as well. Tugay indicated that permission has been obtained from the ministry and used the following expressions:
"They call it seeding. It is done with clouds that have come over the city. There is a method that ensures condensation. It is said to increase precipitation by 25%. There is no official application in Turkey, but we applied to the ministry. They said, 'Take responsibility and do it.' There is no company doing this in Turkey, we will implement the application when we find one abroad."
THERE IS NO COMPANY IN TURKEY, ABROAD IS BEING RESEARCHED
Mayor Tugay emphasized that there is no company operating in cloud seeding in Turkey and stated that negotiations with foreign-based companies are ongoing. He noted that the implementation will only take place when the necessary technical and legal conditions are met.
HARSH CRITICISM FROM A SCIENTIST
Regarding the artificial rain application, Prof. Dr. Doğan Yaşar, a member of the TÜBA Environment, Biodiversity, and Climate Change Working Group, stated in an evaluation to Egedesonsöz that the application is not scientific.
"UNSCIENTIFIC, WASTE OF MONEY"
Prof. Dr. Yaşar, stating that artificial rain is not a realistic method, used the following expressions:
"Artificial rain is an unscientific concept. 33 years ago, they said, 'We will drop a rain bomb on Istanbul,' they did, and the result was zero. All of these are nonsense. Mr. Cemil Tugay should not get involved in things he does not understand, and should not waste money. These practices have long been abandoned in the world. The last to deal with this was Israel, but they also stopped 10-15 years ago. It is not possible for humanity to intervene in nature in this way."
WHAT IS CLOUD SEEDING?
Cloud seeding is known as a method aimed at increasing the likelihood of precipitation by delivering certain substances to clouds with precipitation potential through aircraft or ground-based systems.
The most commonly used substances in this application include silver iodide, sodium chloride, and dry ice. The goal is to accelerate the merging of water droplets within the cloud to trigger the formation of rain or snow.