UK drops Turkish dam plan
 

Kamal Ahmed

political editor

The Observer, London
Sunday July 1, 2001

The government is to abandon its support for the controversial Ilisu dam in Turkey after an official report that it commissioned on the environmental and human rights impact of the project found that it had failed to meet international standards.

The report was commissioned in 1999 by Stephen Byers, who was then Trade and Industry Secretary, as the 'definitive assessment' of the project which campaigners say will ruin the lives of tens of thousands of local people.

The study, which arrived on the Government's desk on Friday, is said to be 'very negative' about how well Turkey has dealt with allegations that building the dam would lead to the displacement of more than 70,000 Kurds in the south-east of the country and the destruction of the archaeologically significant town of Hasankeyf.

The Observer has also been told by senior government sources that the report makes for 'difficult reading' and that it would be impossible to provide export guarantees for British firms involved in the project with such a damning indictment hanging over it.

'There would need to be significant changes in Turkey's attitude to Ilisu if the Government was to continue backing this,' said one official.

Although the Department of Trade and Industry will insist no final decision has been taken and that there will now need to be a long period of consultation, officials admitted that human rights concerns were central to their support.

Just before the general election, Richard Caborn, then a Minister at the DTI, said: 'If these [the report's] conditions are not satisfied, then there will be no support.'

Doubts have also been raised in the report about the ability of the Turkish economy, which has been undermined by a recent currency crisis, to support the £1.25bn project. 'We have always argued that the impact of this would be terrible for both the Kurdish people and the environment,' said Matt Phillips, the senior campaigns manager with Friends of the Earth.

'The test is now whether Tony Blair puts the interests of big business ahead of the interests of human rights.'

Two years ago the Government said that it was 'minded' to back the construction of the dam. The Prime Minister overruled concerns raised by the Foreign Office that the building of the dam across the River Tigris would lead to increased tension with Turkey's neighbours, Syria
and Iraq. Both countries rely on the river for scarce water resources.

Byers was also concerned by the negative ethical message that supporting the dam sent out.

Source:

Added at Kurdforum: 18 November 2001