FightING ILISU DAM  - SAVE HASANKEYF AND TIGRIS VALLEY

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Letter to the the International Hydropower Association (IHA) on 23th May 2007

 

Textfeld: Yusufeli Culture Association, Artvin Association for Conservation of Munzur Valley and Natural Life, Tunceli Fools of Munzur, Tunceli Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive, Diyarbakir-Batman-Mardin-Siirt-Sirnak Turkey To: President Dr. Doğan Altınbilek International Hydropower Association (IHA) Central Office Suite 55, Westmead House 123 Westmead Road London Borough of Sutton, SM1 4JH United Kingdom Per fax: +44 20 8770 1744 Social structure, cultural heritage and environment in Turkey under danger through many limited useful and destructive dam and HEPP projects! 23.05.2007 Dear Dr. Doğan Altınbilek, From May 29, 2007 till May 31, 2007 you will organize the World Congress on Advancing Sustainable Hydropower in Turkey/Antalya. You will come with your numerous powerful members to Turkey to hold this important event. We welcome you in Turkey. However at same time we, organizations of dam affected people, would like to inform you that in Turkey several planned dams and Hydroelectric Powerplant (HEPP) projects will have no sustainable and participative character, will lead to big loss of social structure, cultural heritage and environment and have very limited benefits and thereby run counter to the idea of sustainable hydropower development. As we know at least one dam and HEPP project is planned to be built with the involvement of your Austrian member VA Tech (Andritz) which is Leader Company for the Ilisu Dam and HEPP project. In case of implementation in this planned dam not only international guidelines (Worldbank. OECD, WCD), even your very own IHA Sustainable Guidelines will be violated. We call on you to demand from your involved member VA Tech (Andritz) to stop and discuss the Ilisu Project since in numerous cases it violates the IHA sustainability guidelines. If there are other IHA members involved in the following problematic projects the same is current for them: Yusufeli dam and HEPP (Province Artvin), Konaktepe I and II dams and HEPP (Province Tunceli) and Yortanli dam (Province Izmir). 1) The IHA Sustainability Guidelines clearly require in section 4 that before constructing a dam, alternative energy options and alternative hydropower options need to be assessed. The Guidelines state that “governments, and where applicable, project proponents should apply sustainability criteria when comparing project alternatives.” In all current planned dam projects in Turkey, neither the government nor the project proponents have discussed broad energy options and alternatives to the dams, or compared various options with each other. They have ignored existing proposals for alternative options developed by academics and experts. 2) The IHA Sustainability Guidelines state that “developers should make every effort to avoid, or to reduce to a minimum, alterations to sites of exceptional national and international value.” (Key criteria 8 on natural heritage sites in comparing project alternatives) However, in Turkey, there is no respect for any cultural heritage of the areas where dams are proposed. Particularly the archaeological sites Allianoi and Hasankeyf will be destroyed if the dams are built and the antique cities flooded. The Ilisu dam will destroy the at least 9.000 years old city of Hasankeyf, a site of major international archaeological significance, whose heritage of 20 different cultures can only be preserved if they remain in situ. The same is current for Allianoi, a unique 2000 years old site of thermal bath close to the famous site of Pergamon. Contrary to the stipulations of the IHA Sustainability Guidelines, the proposed efforts and plans to “avoid or reduce to a minimum” the destruction of cultural heritage at Allianoi and Hasankeyf (like covering under water or moving some monuments) or are not regarded as serious by many national and international experts because of many reasons. 3) The Environmental Impact Assessment for the current Ilisu and Yusufeli projects runs counter to the Environmental Assessment Principles of the IHA, as outlined in Paragraph 4.3 of the IHA Sustainability Guidelines. For example were the stakeholders not given opportunities to participate in decision-making processes. No appropriate procedures or codes of practice regarding stakeholder participation, as required by the IHA Sustainability Guidelines, were applied. And we have to add that the current EIA’s were done because the involved Export Credit Agencies (ECA) demanded for that and not after Turkish law. The Konaktepe I and II projects in Tunceli have even no EIA. The current Environmental Impact Assessment of Ilisu and Yusufeli dams does not adhere to the principles for environmental assessments laid out by the IHA in section 5 on “Optimizing Environmental Outcomes for hydropower schemes”. “Adequate data collection and an EIA process that identifies potential problems prior to dam design are critical… Design and operational systems that minimise as much as possible the negative impacts within the storage and downstream;” 4) The Ilisu dam will affect up to 78,000 people (and the Yusufeli dam up 19.000 people), the project owner want to implement the projects in next time, but no final Resettlement Action Plan has been agreed and the current proposals fall far short of the requirements of the IHA Sustainability Guidelines, as outlined in section 6.1. on managing social impacts. The Sustainability Guidelines state that “displacement should be dealt with in a fair and equitable manner” and “resettlement needs to be planned thoroughly”. The current proposal for resettling the Ilisu/Yusufeli-dam affected people runs counter to these policy requirements and violates the following IHA guideline on displacement: “Where population displacement is necessary, comprehensive resettlement and rehabilitation plans need to be developed and implemented in consultation with the affected population.” (Key criteria 7 in comparing project alternatives). The Sustainability Guidelines also state that developers need “to ensure adequate and ongoing consultation with those groups or individuals that will be displaced, so that they have input into both the planning and implementation of the resettlement program.” In the currently ongoing planning processes of Ilisu, Yusufeli and Konaktepe dams the people that will be displaced have not been consulted noteworthy or integrated in decision-making processes and plans related to their resettlement. The affected local authorities and the affected people were never asked about their view of the proposed projects and they were not involved in the decision-making process. One time a survey - in case of Yusufeli and Ilisu, no survey is done for Konaktepe I/II - is neither consultation nor participation. In independent surveys the affected people say that they do not know much about the projects and what will expect them once displacement starts. 5) The IHA Sustainability Guidelines, in the section on “managing social impacts”, also state that the “displaced groups should be provided with sufficient assistance to ensure that their livelihoods are improved or, as a minimum, to ensure that they are re-established at no disadvantage.” The proposed resettlement sites for the cities of Yusufeli and Hasankeyf are in problematic and agricultural not suitable areas. The main question is not answered how the population will safe their existence and have regularly income. It is expected that the people will run into debt. This is contrary to the requirements of the Sustainability Guidelines. The people are not provided with assistance to safeguard their current standard of living or to improve their situation. It is rather the opposite that the sites chosen and the assistance planned for the displaced people of Ilisu, Yusufeli and Konaktepe will likely lead to the impoverishment of the people. Not only a huge part of the affected people, also the main part of the public opinion and media in Turkey regards the four current dam and HEPP projects as problematic and criticizes them. But the involved companies and government do not take into consideration the opinion of the majority in our society. In the last years the discussions on dam projects are intensified because the government goes a wrong way in the dam and energy policy. At first the government does not discuss these subjects with the society and affected people. Of course dams can have big benefit which is shown by several projects, but there are also many implemented and planned dams in Turkey and in the world which have more loss than benefit. So every case has to be regarded carefully. The decision has to be taken with the society and affected people what is NOT done in Turkey. At the same time we want to state that we are not principally against hydropower. It has its positive aspects. The same aspects concerning dams are valid here. Whether a HEPP is necessary or not has to be considered for every case. We represent people affected by dam and HEPP projects. We can not accept that uneconomic and unnecessary projects destroy our social structure which means displacement of dozen thousands of people and impoverishment for them. In Turkey our cultural heritage is very old; there are archaeological sites which are up to 10.000 years old and under danger of dams. We identify ourselves with that history and culture. In times of climate change we can not watch how our last river ecosystems will be destroyed, they are important in terms of biodiversity and livelihoods. We affected people want a development in our region and country without cultural and ecological destruction, a development, which serves the people and does not displace them. We want to active part of decision which will determine our future. As we mentioned above we demand that your members take this explained concerns into consideration regarding the current discussed four dam and HEPP projects in Turkey. Furthermore we would like to have a meeting with you during the World Congress on Advancing Sustainable Hydropower in Antalya in order to explain our view. Best regards Recep Akyürek Diren Özkan for the Yusufeli Culture Association for the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive Mehmet Bidav for the Association for Conservation of Munzur Valley and Natural Life and Fools of Munzur Contact: Mrs. Diren Özkan, e-mail: hasankeyfgirisimi@gmail.com, Tel: 0090-5358977666, Fax: 0090-4122284509