By Rob Evans and David Hencke
GuardianJuly 12, 2001
The government is considering backing a second highly controversial dam project in Turkey which threatens to evict up to 15,000 people from their homes, in a rerun of the furor over British support for the Ilisu dam.
A British construction company, Amec, is part of a consortium seeking to build the £600m Yusefeli hydroelectric dam on the Coruh river in north-east Turkey. Amec has applied for British taxpayers' support from the Export Credit Guarantee Department after almost two years of detailed talks with officials.
A similar application to back the Ilisu dam, from the British construction company Balfour Beatty, provoked a storm of protest from environmentalists and human rights campaigners. The second dam will trigger more protests. The plans for the Yusefeli dam are disclosed in this week's New Statesman magazine, which reports that between 12,000 and 15,000 people, mainly from Turkey's big Georgian minority, will lose their homes if it is built.
Amec has asked the ECGD to guarantee a £68m loan as part of its contribution to the construction consortium. The consortium is also applying for support from the equivalent official credit agencies in France, Belgium and Spain. The dams at Ilisu and Yusefeli are part of drive by Turkey to generate more electricity to satisfy economic growth and rising living standards.
A spokeswoman for the ECGD confirmed that an application had been lodged after a long series of discussions with the company, and said an environmental impact study had been delivered to the department last week. The report can only be made public if Amec agrees. It is understood that the ECGD is raising objections - particularly about the 15,000 people who could lose their homes in the town of Yusefeli and surrounding villages.
Last night Amec issued a statement: "The international joint venture is particularly aware of the sensitivity surrounding the environmental and social issues of this project. Satisfaction of the environmental impact assessment requirements is being led by the French export credit agency, in liaison with the export credit agencies of the other member countries. "Both Amec and ECGD are fully aware of the serious issues facing this project and aware that it will not go ahead until those issues are satisfactorily resolved. Currently, ECGD is awaiting further discussions on these environmental and social issues and on the development of Turkey's economic situation."
The comedian Mark Thomas, a leader of the campaign against the Ilisu dam, said: "If Yusefeli is turning into Ilisu 2, I am really looking forward to getting stuck into the government for a second time on the issue of dams, funding and Turkey. The government has already been humiliated over what they thought was going to be a minor issue." Hannah Griffiths, corporate campaigner for Friends of Earth, said: "The ECGD should not finance projects which put big businesses' interests before communities and the environment.
"They should incorporate the guidelines of the internationally- respected World Commission on Dams into their decision-making. This would ensure that UK taxpayers' money is not used to fund destructive dam projects such as these." The government recently signalled that it is preparing to withdraw its support from the Ilisu dam, 18 months after Tony Blair backed it.
The project has been criticised on the grounds that it would deprive 30,000 people, mainly Kurds, of their homes or land, flood hundreds of valuable archaeological sites and create health hazards such as malaria and toxic algae blooms. The government had stressed that its support for the Ilisu dam would not be given unless four conditions were satisfied. An official report this month showed that none of these had been met.
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