Abstract:

Cities are settlements that consume the most drinking and domestic water, but have less water holding capacity. While this affects the quality and quantity of consumable water in cities, it also directly concerns access to the right to water, which is one of the basic human rights. Supply of consumable water, water quality and fair sharing are the responsibility of local and general government. When considered with administrative influence, water quality has a political status. In this study, it is aimed to reveal to what extent the people of Bursa have access to consumable water and the effects of local political decisions on this access from a geographical point of view. As a method "Bursa Water Quality Questionnaire" consisting of 7 items was applied in order to examine the preferability of mains water in Bursa city. 3205 people participated in the survey. 77% of the participants stated that they were not satisfied with the mains water they used, 65% of them used demijohn water, and 18% of them used a water purifier. Considering the neighborhoods and districts where the participants reside, spatial differences are observed between the Bursa Plain and Uludağ neighborhoods in water quality. This situation has caused changes in individual water source preference and water quality between plain and mountain neighborhoods with local political decisions.

Keywords: