Ilisu: The giant hydroelectric power plant is set to start operating by 2014

Sissy Danninger

All the protests by NGOs have been in vain so far. On August 15^th, 2007 all the necessary contracts for starting the construction of the giant Ilisu dam on the Tigris River in Eastern Turkey/Northern Kurdistan have been signed. On the same day the private Bank Austria – Creditanstalt (BA-CA) stepped in with a credit of a triple digit million sum. Shortly before that date the Austrian led Ilisu-consortium of Austrian, German and Swiss companies had already got the export credit guarantees by the respective national agencies.

In September 2007 first unconfirmed reports about the beginning of deportations in the area turned up. In the end up to 50.000 inhabitants will have lost their homes and their farmland to give room for a giant dam and a 135 metres deep reservoir with a surface of more than 300 square kilometres. Hundreds of villages as well as the cultural treasures of the ancient city of Hasankeyf (Kurdish: Eskif) will be drowned along 135 kilometres of the Tigris with the yet still preserved environment with its rich flora and fauna. As a consequence Osman Baydemir, mayor of the nearby provincial capital Diyarbekir (Amed), expects about 30.000 to 40.000 Ilisu-refugees for his town only – with most of them ending up in the slums.

The 1,2 billion Euro project (of which around 530 million Euros will go to the above named European countries’ companies) for the 1.200 MW hydroelectric power plant presently is set to be finished by 2014/2015.

But “Ilisu has not been built yet” the involved international and local environmental, cultural and humanitarian NGOs defiantly reacted after a moment of shock in the follow-up of the final conclusion of the contracts. And, indeed, protests are continuing in Europe as well as in the region itself. Within just a few weeks after the bank’s decision to join in about 300 of its clients had left BA-CA in protest according to information by Eca-watch (Export credit agencies-watch) in Austria. On a weekly basis demonstrators gathered in front of BA-CA branch offices in Austria’s capital Vienna and in the Austrian provinces.

Contrary to the soothing assertions of the project’s advocates the critics insist that international standards as set by the UN and the World Bank for comparable endeavours are in no way respected by the Ilisu consortium of European and Turkish companies. As the Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiar Zebari, himself a Kurd, confirms, there have not been any official consultations and arrangements with this neighbouring country – just about 65 kilometres downstream behind the Ilisu dam. There are grave concerns Turkey might one day use the plant politically by restricting the Tigris water supply not only for Iraq but for adjoining Syria as well.

The critics also miss any convincing environmental impact assessment in accordance with international standards. Countless species of plants and animals like the Euphrates poplar or the Euphrates pond terrapin and many fishes will lose their habitat and become extinct in the region, they say. Entire swathes of land were in danger of running dry.

The Ilisu-dam-project presently is the largest of a total of 19 waterpower stations already under construction or planned in South-eastern Turkey. The Austrian-led consortium (VA Tech Hydro Andritz in Austria, Züblin in Germany, Alstom, Stucki, Colenco, Maggia in Switzerland) basically counters protests arguing that if they did not realize the “development-project” someone else would do it with less consideration. Other arguments defending their stance include the creation of jobs in Turkey and in the European countries involved.

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