Archived press release

Drop the dam, tony!

14 December 1999

Prime Minister Tony Blair is urged by environment and development experts today to stay out of the scandal over the planned Ilisu Dam in Turkey.

An announcement is expected in the next few days from the Department of Trade and Industry that the Government is “minded” to give British builder Balfour Beatty (responsible for the notorious Pergau Dam in Malaysia) a £200 million Government credit for the project.The Dam plan has been opposed by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and by the League of Arab States, but is set to get New Labour backing after a direct intervention by No10. Trade Secretary Stephen Byers has described the dam issue as “the hardest decision” he has yet had to take as a Minister, but has also insisted that it has been taken by “the whole Government” rather than his Department. Friends of the Earth and the Corner House have written to Mr Blair urging him to drop his support for the dam.

The proposed dam site is on the Tigris River, forty miles upstream from the Turkish/Iraqi/Syrian border. It will flood 15 towns and 52 villages and displace up to 20,000 Kurdish people. The Ilusu project is part of the South East Anatolia Project (GAP), which has already displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurdish people, many without compensation. Because of the war between the Turkish army and Kurdish guerillas, local opposition to such schemes cannot be voiced for fear of state reprisals. Towns which will be lost include Hasankeyf, the only Anatolian town to have survived since the Middle Ages.In 1978, the Turkish Government's Department of Culture gave the town “complete archeological protection” (decision A-1105).

After threats of court action, the Government promised to commission and publish a new assessment of the environmental and social impacts of the dam, which may be released at the same time as the DTi announces support in principle for the project. The FOE/Corner House letter to Mr Blair sets out seven conditions which should be met before any decision to back the project is made (the current proposal for the Ilisu dam is almost certain to fail all seven):

“1. The agreement of downstream states has been secured and appropriate

legally-enforceable treaties have been signed.
2. A full socio-economic survey for the area has been conducted, detailing property rights, common property regimes, intangible and tangible assets which will be lost,patterns of livelihood and incomes, etc.
3. A detailed assessment has been carried out of alternatives to the project and made available for independent scrutiny.
4. A full environmental impact assessment has been carried out and made available for independent scrutiny, both locally and in those countries considering public support for the project.
5. Those to be resettled have been fully informed of the implications of the project and consulted, with a view to obtaining their prior informed consent to resettlement and compensation terms.
6. A resettlement plan has been drawn up in consultation with project affected communities.
7. There is independent evidence that human rights are being observed in the region and that local people have the opportunity to express themselves without fear of state retribution.”

The letter also points out that Balfour Beatty is currently being prosecuted in local courts for bribery and corruption in connection with an ECGD-supported dam project in Lesotho.“It would therefore seem appropriate for the ECGD to conduct its own inquiry into the allegations in order to ensure that tax payers money was not used to underwrite illegal payments prior to agreeing support for Balfour Beatty.” [Full copy of the letter available from FOE press office]

Commenting, Nick Hildyard of the Corner House said:
“This dam is unacceptable on political, social and environmental grounds. It endangers peace in the region. It is a part of Turkish state oppression of the Kurdish national minority, and part of a long history of abuse of human rights. It will destroy historic towns and villages and displace tens of thousands of people. There is no justification for the dam whatsoever. Support for it would be utterly inconsistent with New Labour's claim to have given an ethical dimension to foreign policy“

Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth said:
“Six months after the Kosovo conflict, the British Government is poised to back this dangerous and damaging project. Apparently, the way the Turkish Government treats the Kurdish people bothers Mr Blair a lot less than the way the Serbian Government treated the Albanians. If the reports that he has given the Ilisu Dam his personal blessing are true, the Government will face charges of gross hypocrisy.”
NOTES
[1] The ECGD has no rules in place requiring environmental assessments of large projects before guarantees are given. A Written Answer to Cynog Dafis MP (Hansard Written Answers, 11 Feb 1999, column 411) claimed that the ECGD “is undertaking further work ... to determine the best means of further enhancing its policies and procedures and of raising the awareness of UK exporters, investors and overseas buyers on its approach to environmental issues. Relevant documents will be placed in the Library of the House when this process is complete”.

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