(The Reporter, Addis Ababa, 12 March 2016) The long-awaited negotiation between Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) and the Italian construction company, Salini Costruttori, has been finalized enabling the latter to commence with the building of the 2,200MW Gibe IV hydropower plant. The two institutions are also expected to formally ink an agreement shortly… Sources told The Reporter an Italian financial institution identified as Servizi Assicuative del Commerce Estero (SACE) has agreed to finance the project estimated at EUR 1.5 billion… The other massive Omo River hydroelectric power project–the 1,800-megawatt Gibe III–that was highly challenged by right groups in connection with indigenous tribes living around Lake Turkana was completed only a few months ago and has now started generating power partially. Construction of that dam began in 2006 with flagrant violations of Ethiopia’s own laws on environmental protection and procurement practices, and the national constitution. The project’s US$1.7 billion contract was awarded without competition to Italian construction giant Salini, raising serious questions about the project’s integrity. The Gibe III dam and expansion of large, irrigated plantations in the Lower Omo basin threatens the food security and local economies that support more than half a million people in southwest Ethiopia and along the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana.
Dams
Ten reasons why ECA funded large hydro projects should not be OECD climate initiatives
(International Rivers, Berkeley, 3 December 2015) At the Paris COP, 500 NGOs from 85 countries published a manifesto on 10 Reasons Why Climate Initiatives Should Not Include Large Hydropower Projects. The manifesto explicitly refers to the inclusion of large hydro projects in the special terms of the OECD ECAs for renewable energy technologies.
Ilisu dam protest
(Hasankeyf Action Day, Hasankeyf, 20 September 2015) On September 20th, activists, social movements and NGO’s joined an international action day for the conservation of Hasankeyf and the Tigris River. Protesting against the Ilisu Dam Project, a large demonstration took place in the 10.000 year old town of Hasankeyf, which is threatened by the Ilisu Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant Project. If the ongoing construction of the project is completed, there will be a massive social, ecological and cultural destruction in Turkish-Kurdistan, the North of Mesopotamia. The Ilisu Project will also intensify ongoing Middle East conflicts within and outside Turkish borders, in particular in Iraq and Syria. Protesters requested UNESCO designation of Hasankeyf as a world heritage site. In July 2010 after several years of local and international campaigns, the Export Credit Agencies of Germany, Austria and Switzerland suspended credit guarantees due to Turkey’s failure to comply with required environmental, social and cultural heritage conditions. However, the Turkish state and the companies found new financing and continue with the project.
Andritz receives Austrian “Eyesore of the Year” award
(ECA Watch Austria, Vienna, 21 February 2014) On February 20th, the Austrian company Andritz received the “Eyesore of the Year 2013” award for its involvement in three dam projects with tremendous negative ecological and human rights impacts: Xayaburi in Laos, Belo Monte in Brazil as well as Ilisu in Turkey. At the beginning of the week the company signed contracts for yet another disastrous mega-project: a gigantic pulp mill in the middle of Sumatra’s rainforests. This new project involvement underlines the reasons for Andritz receiving this award, as it continuously takes part in some of the worst projects in the world… Andritz has received export guarantees from Austria’s export credit agency OeKB and when an Asia Pulp & Paper project suffered a financial collapse some years later, Austrian tax payers lost more than EUR40 million… In November 2012 ECA Watch Austria and Friends of the Earth Austria sent a letter to Andritz expressing concern about APP’s track record and offered a meeting with NGO representatives from Indonesia. Despite several attempts at contact, Andritz never reacted to this invitation.
International Activists Block Ilısu Dam Construction
(Damocracy, 21 May 2013) Representatives of dam-affected communities and international organizations from South America, the Middle East, Europe, the US, and Africa, today blocked the entrance to the construction site of the Ilisu dam in southeast Turkey demanding an end to the controversial development that would sink an ancient city dating back to the Bronze Age. The Belo Monte dam in Brazil and the Ilisu dam in Turkey are the two most controversial mega-dam projects in the world today. Both dams are located in cultural and natural hotspots, inflicting devastating consequences and displacing over 75,000 people in Amazonia and Mesopotamia. In addition, the Ilisu dam, located a few kilometers from the Iraqi border, will affect the livelihood of Marsh Arabs living in the newly restored Basra Marshes. Turkey controls the Tigris and Euphrates headwaters, which dictates how much water flows downstream into Syria and Iraq. The official export credit agencies of Germany, Turkey and Austria withdrew from financing of the Ilisu dam in 2008 and German insurers and exporters are involved in the Belo Monte dam.
Unusual Suspects
Unearthing the shadowy world of Export Credit Agencies. This report examines some of the problems with ECAs, and includes case studies on Climate change, Asia Pulp and Paper, Ok Tedi Mine, Large Dams.
Open Letter to Andritz Company Concerning Construction of the Ilisu Dam
(Save the Tigris, 22 March 2013) Press Release by Campaign to Save the Tigris River and the Iraqi Marshes. On the occasion of Austria’s Andritz AG Annual General Meeting which is being held on World Water Day, the Save the Tigris campaign, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations from Iraq, Iran & Turkey, sent a letter to Andritz’s CEO, Wolfgang Leitner, regarding Andritz’ involvement in the construction of the Ilisu Dam in Turkey; a controversial project which has failed to comply with basic international law. The open letter was signed by 4447 Iraqis and received support from other dam affected communities from Chile, Indonesia, Spain, Turkey, and support from the international community in Italy, UK, the US who endorsed Iraqi demands to stop supplying equipment for the dam construction until compliance with international law and treaties is assured.The Export Credit Agencies of Germany, Austria and Switzerland have suspended credit guarantees due to Turkish failure to comply with required environmental, social and cultural heritage conditions.
Diversion of Tigris river completed, construction of controversial Ilisu dam to begin
(Nature Iraq, Sulaymaniyah,30 September 2012) A new construction phase was “celebrated” at the Ilisu dam site with a big ceremony last week: The Tigris river has been diverted at the construction site now flowing through three big tunnels. This diversion will be maintained for several years and construction of the actual dam in the dry river bed begins. The Turkish Minister of the Environment Veysel Eroglu called the Ilisu dam, to be completed in 2014, an “important strategic and economic project”. It remains unclear, whether by “strategic” he is addressing the national Turkish-Kurdish conflict or the international consequences (mainly for Iraq). Once the Ilisu dam operates, Iraq will be even more dependent Turkish water policies. The livelihoods of about 6 Million people in Iraq depend on the Tigris river by using the water for irrigation or fishing. By cutting down the water flow, Ilisu will also put an end to the Mesopotamian Marshes, culturally and ecologically one of the most important areas worldwide. It also remains unclear, where the inhabitants of the almost 200 villages and hamlets in the reservoir area will be resettled and how they will be able to earn their living, as Turkish laws do not provide for the restoration of livelihoods. A number of EU export credit agencies withdrew support for the Ilisu dam in 2008 and the European Parliament demanded that Turkey stop all work on the Ilisu dam project on 2 February 2010.
Letter: ECA Watch to Head of Export Credits Division, OECD
(8 November 2011) This letter from ECA Watch outlines the network’s position the OECD Draft Sector Understanding on Renewable Energy, Climate Change Mitigation and Water Projects.
The Ilisu dam in Turkey and the role of export credit agencies and NGO networks
(2010) This paper from Christine Eberlein (Berne Declaration), Heike Drillisch (CounterCurrent), Ercan Ayboga (Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive) and Thomas Wenidoppler (ECA Watch Austria) analyses the actions of three ECAs in relation to the Ilisu dam in Turkey, and explores the roles of NGOs within the process of achieving best practice.
Abstract: The World Commission on Dams (WCD) report focused attention on the question of how those displaced by large dams can be adequately compensated and properly resettled. An important debate from the Dams and Development Forum concerned the appropriate roles of different stakeholders, and the question as to how governments and ‘external stakeholders’ such as international institutions, financial investors and non-government organisations (NGOs) can be encouraged to implement the WCD recommendations and international standards on resettlement and environmental protection. This article analyses the actions of three European Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) aimed at improving the outcomes of the Ilisu Dam and hydroelectric power project in Kurdish-populated southeast of Turkey. It also explores the role of NGOs within the process of achieving best practice and preventing poor outcomes. Even though the ECAs’ efforts to meet World Bank project standards were unsuccessful and ended in July 2009 with their withdrawal, this was the first case in history where ECAs tried to implement specified social and environmental project conditions. This article aims ultimately to analyse the reasons for the failure to meet the ECAs’ conditions, and the lessons to be learned from this process.
First published in Water Alternatives 3(2): 291-312
