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Western credit insurers quit Ilısu Dam project
The Ilısu Dam project, one of the largest undertakings of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), aims to generate hydroelectricity using the water of the Tigris River, which flows through Hasankeyf on its way to Iraq. Iraq last week appealed to the Western backers of the Ilısu Dam project to withdraw their support for the project and claimed that the project would worsen the nation's water shortage problem. Iraq already suffers from a chronic shortage of water for irrigation.
The Ilısu Dam project will force tens of thousands of residents to relocate and will drastically change the landscape of the area. Almost 80 percent of the town of Hasankeyf, which dates back 12,000 years, will be submerged once the project is completed. Work on the project was halted in December when the three insurers -- Euler Hermes Kreditversicherung of Germany, Austria's Oesterreichische Kontrollbank and Swiss Schweizerische Exportrisikoversicherung -- ordered suppliers to stop work on the dam for 180 days.
“The agreed contractual conditions regarding the environment, cultural heritage and relocation could not be fulfilled,” the insurers, which had provided credit guarantees for the German, Austrian and Swiss backers, said in a joint statement.
The Turkish government, however, is very determined to complete the project, which evident from a recent statement by Environment and Forestry Minister Veysel Erdoğlu.
“Even if we do not receive any loans, we will continue on with the project using our own means,” he said earlier. He claimed that the project also aims to protect the historical heritage of Hasankeyf and that 25 billion euros would be spent to do just that.
Meanwhile, the Turkish government is planning to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for “new Hasankeyf” on July 30.
The construction of Ilısu Dam began on Aug. 5, 2006 under the Ilısu Consortium, with the cooperation of Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Turkey's State Waterworks Authority (DSİ). The most recent stumbling block came when the foreign underwriters asked Turkey to address humanitarian and environmental concerns and set 153 criteria involving the environment, relocation, cultural heritage and neighboring states. The three countries ordered that work be suspended on the dam for 180 days, a period which ended yesterday.
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