Water accumulation in the Yusufeli reservoir located on the Chorokhi River in Turkey, Artvin Province has started. The reservoir’s dam is 100-story skyscrapers (275 meters) high and can hold 2 billion 130 million cubic meters of water per year. The reservoir is the first one in Turkey and the fifth one in the world among arched dams.

The construction of a dam and a hydroelectric power station which is 70 kilometers away from the city of Artvin, has been ongoing since 2012 in the Yusufeli region. With an installed capacity of 558 megawatts, it will generate about 1.9 billion kWh of energy per year and will bring 5 billion lire as income to the Turkish economy.

The President of Turkey took part in the opening event of the artificial water reservoir and hydroelectric power station. According to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the residents of Yusufeli gave up their homes, jobs, and past to make this project possible. According to the Turkish leader, the new Yusufeli is bigger than the old one with 2,698 residential houses, jobs, and newly built infrastructure.

“We bought them more modern houses, created jobs, and built a completely new district. We know that this will not be enough reward for the sacrifices they have made. On behalf of myself and my people, I would like to express my gratitude to each and every resident of Yusufeli for their sacrifices for the future of our country and nation.

The potential of Yusufeli HPP is enough to provide electricity to 2.5 million houses or to load 750 thousand electric cars - TOGG. In short, in the most difficult geographical conditions of Turkey, we implemented a project with a dam, a station, a new settlement, and roads, which cost a total of 34 billion lira. Let me emphasize that again - 34 billion liras from our national budget.

When we introduced our plans for 2023 to the public 11 years ago, some people sneered at us. All these years, despite some constantly trying to steal our energy and time, Turkey has gone beyond regional leadership and now has a say on a global scale. Democracy and development standards, which we could not even dream of 25 years ago, are now a natural part of our daily life,” Erdogan said.

The President of Turkey noted that the operation of the Yusufeli reservoir will be closely connected with the Artvin, Deriner, Borchkha, and Muratli reservoirs, which will increase the production of electricity in the northeastern part of Anatolia.

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