2009/07/13

Funds for Turkey's Ilisu Dam Dry Up Broadcast date: 7-13-2009/ Written by Dorian Jones

From www.1mpi.com Turkey's controversial Ilisu dam project has been dealt a severe blow. An international consortium of German, Austrian and Swiss companies withdrew their financial support last week, accusing Turkey of failing to meet environmental concerns and commitments to relocate people affected by the dam. The dam if completed would be one of the largest in the region. But it is the center of a growing national and international campaign by environmentalists to stop it. A Turkish bulletin has announced that an international consortium had pulled out of the Ilisu dam project. The consortium made up of German, Swiss and Austrian financial institutions said it is concerned about the project's effect on the environment. The$1.6 billion Ilisu dam, if completed, would flood one of the country's most important conservation areas, including the 10,000 year old town of Hasankeyf. The lake would also flood an area of more than 300 square kilometers, which would force the relocation of 10,000 people from 80 surrounding villages by its scheduled completion in 2013. National and international environmental groups have joined forces to stop the dam. Guven Erken the head of the Turkish environmental group Doga Dernigi says the consortium's withdrawal is a major blow to the project."It is very significant this is the second consortium that collapsed. Turkey has to establish a new consortium. And that will certainly cause further delay in the construction of the project," Erken said. Set to produce 3.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, the project is part of the Turkish government's plan to boost economic prosperity in the country's less developed south-eastern region. The Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu earlier this month wrongly predicted the consortium wouldn't withdraw from the project. But he also said any withdrawal would not mean an end to the dam."We have the power, financial sources and capabilities to build this dam, but I am confident we will find other international resources," he said. In a statement following the decision, the environment ministry reconfirmed its commitment to the dam's completion. Gun Kut of Istanbul's Bosphorus University is an expert on water issues. He says Turkey overcame similar problems in building another dam."In the Ataturk dam the same problem was there. Nobody wanted to fund it. The World Bank didn't want to fund it. So Turkey built from its own resources. So that is feasible. In the end you are expecting some returns that are not only economically but also socially and politically important," he said. But with the Turkish government facing a growing budget deficit, analysts say it may be Turkey