Turkey’s government has accelerated the process for the development of the controversial Canal Istanbul megaproject, city mayor Ekrem Imamoglu (@ekrem_imamoglu), who sits in jail following his arrest last month, observed on April 17 in a tweet.

Canal Istanbul is to slice through Istanbul to connect the Black Sea with the Marmara Sea, providing an alternative route for shipping that presently uses the Bosporus natural strait, which lies around 30 to 40 kilometres (19 to 25 miles) to the east. In 2011, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described it as his "crazy" project. He meant "crazy wow", but critics, including environmentalists say the project is actually "crazy mad and crazy bad".

Video: Canal Istanbul project.

No water for Sazlidere Dam

“They took advantage of my absence and started the construction of 24,000 homes around the Sazlidere Dam, one of the most important water resources on the European Side of the city, for the sake of the profiteering and plunder of the project called Canal Istanbul,” Imamoglu also wrote.

Video: Imamoglu shared a video depicting the housing project.

“This time they hastily got [the government-run Housing Development Administration] TOKI involved. They put the bulldozers and construction equipment into an absolutely protected area, right down to the bottom of the water,” added Imamoglu, charged with corruption offences that he says are politically construed to obstruct his political challenge to Erdogan.

Project officers ignored official warnings issued by the Istanbul Municipality and the Istanbul Water and Sewage Administration (ISKI) and reduced the drinking water usage rate of Sazlidere Dam from 100% to 0% with a presidential decree, according to the mayor.

Shameless

“They shamelessly hid this from the public and did not even report it to ISKI,” Imamoglu also wrote.

Everyone should understand that Istanbul does not have a single drop of water it can sacrifice, he added.

No sincerity?

“If you had any sincerity over climate change and environmental protection, you would not attack Istanbul's water resources like this,” Imamoglu continued.

“You are adding this damage you have done to the environment and Istanbul's water resources to the damage you have done to the law, economy and democracy,” Imamoglu concluded.