The
Ilısu Dam Campaign is a
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
based campaign working to stop the construction of the
Ilısu DamIlısu Dam is one of the 21 dams of the Southeastern Anatolia Project of Turkey. Located on the Tigris River, it is the largest hydroelectric power plant of the project...
on the river
TigrisThe Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates. The river flows from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
in south east
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
. The construction plans for the dam would lead to the flooding of about 300 square kilometers and would displace between 25,000 and 78,000 people, in the
HasankeyfHasankeyf is a town and district located along the Tigris River in the Batman Province in southeastern Turkey. It was declared a natural conservation area by Turkey in 1981...
district of the
BatmanBatman is a Turkish province in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Anatolia. The province's population is just over 500,000....
province.
The main purpose of the dam is the production of
hydroelectric powerHydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e., the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
, but it's also supposed to provide better
irrigationIrrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil. It is usually used to assist in growing crops in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
for local
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
.
The
Ilısu Dam Campaign is a
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
based campaign working to stop the construction of the
Ilısu DamIlısu Dam is one of the 21 dams of the Southeastern Anatolia Project of Turkey. Located on the Tigris River, it is the largest hydroelectric power plant of the project...
on the river
TigrisThe Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates. The river flows from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
in south east
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
. The construction plans for the dam would lead to the flooding of about 300 square kilometers and would displace between 25,000 and 78,000 people, in the
HasankeyfHasankeyf is a town and district located along the Tigris River in the Batman Province in southeastern Turkey. It was declared a natural conservation area by Turkey in 1981...
district of the
BatmanBatman is a Turkish province in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Anatolia. The province's population is just over 500,000....
province.
Initial plans for the dam
The main purpose of the dam is the production of
hydroelectric powerHydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e., the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
, but it's also supposed to provide better
irrigationIrrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil. It is usually used to assist in growing crops in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
for local
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
. Those who oppose the dam claim that
human rightsHuman rights refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the...
and
environmentalThe natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof....
issues have been disregarded in the planning. The dam would also lead to the drowning of hundreds of
archeologicalArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
sites, including the ancient town of
HasankeyfHasankeyf is a town and district located along the Tigris River in the Batman Province in southeastern Turkey. It was declared a natural conservation area by Turkey in 1981...
.
In 2002, the campaign won an important victory when it forced UK based company
Balfour BeattyBalfour Beatty plc is a London-based construction, engineering, rail and investment services company. It is one of the largest construction companies in the UK, and the 15th largest in the world...
and other European companies, like
SwedishSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
based
SkanskaSkanska, is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden, where it is also the largest construction company.-History:...
, to withdraw from the project. The companies involved in the project had applied for
Export Credit GuaranteesExport credit agencies, known in trade finance as ECAs, are private or quasi-governmental institutions that act as intermediaries between national governments and exporters to issue export financing...
from their home governments, which meant that taxpayers money would be used to finance the project.
Current plans
The plans for the dam were not scrapped however, and in 2005 the project resurfaced. This time one of the main
contractorsA general contractor is a group or individual that contracts with another organization or individual for the construction, renovation or demolition of a building, road or other structure...
of the dam is
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n based VA TECH, a
subsidiaryA subsidiary, in business matters, is an entity that is controlled by a separate entity. The controlled entity is called a company, corporation, or limited liability company and in some cases can be a government or state-owned enterprise, and the controlling entity is called its parent...
of
Siemens AGSiemens AG is Europe's largest engineering conglomerate. Siemens' international headquarters are located in Berlin and Munich, Germany. The company is a conglomerate of three main business sectors: Industry, Energy and Healthcare with a total of 15 Divisions.Worldwide, Siemens and its subsidiaries...
. According to the Turkish government, new resettlement plans are supposedly planned and a large
fundFund may refer to:* To fund is the process of Funding, or providing capital or other resources for a transaction, a project, a person, a business or other private or public institutions...
is supposed to be set up to rescue some parts of the town of Hasankeyf by moving them elsewhere.
According to the opponents of the dam, these new plans do not adequately address the original concerns and as of August 2005 the campaign is still active.
Impact on Displaced Cultures
The Ilısu Dam project has been criticized for the fact that the damming of the Tigris River will flood a significant portion of the region, effectively erasing the cultural and archaeological history of those displaced peoples.
See also
- Mark Thomas
Mark Clifford Thomas is an English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter from south London. He first came to light as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s...
British comedian and journalist, Chairman of the campaign
- Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric river dam that spans the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yiling District,Yichang, Hubei, China. It is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind....
a controversial dam project in ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
- Southeastern Anatolia Project
The Southeastern Anatolia Project is a multi-sector integrated regional development project based on the concept of sustainable development for the 9 million people living in the Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey...
- Aswan High Dam a dam that caused a comparable loss of archaeological sites
External links