SchNEWS : Turkish Dam Project - Profit above all else for one Mr Blair

BALFOUR BEATTEN

"We are delighted. We were not expecting this, because Balfour Beatty was fighting hard for the dam. This Ilisu campaign is a great example of environment and human rights groups fighting together to be effective." - Kerim Yildiz, spokesman for the Kurdish Human Rights Project.

After shedloads of direct action this week Balfour Beatty announced they were pulling out of the Ilisu Dam project in Turkey. This incredible victory is an inspiration to us all. Comedian and activist Mark Thomas, on tour in Brighton this week, had SchNEWS hacks cracking-up with his quips about shutting down Balfour's Annual General Meeting: "The Kurdish Human Rights activists were raging about the atrocities being committed by Turkish government in the Ilisu area, and Friends of the Earth, they were really angry too. I mean they were tutting - loudly - and looking very cross...and the Quakers normally pacifists to the end shoulder-barged their way onto the platform. At this point a couple of big, mean looking Group 4 security thugs started pacing towards us with intent and in the blink of a eye two very skinny, attractive environmental activist women had rugby tackled them to the ground..."

As the chief executive of Balfour Beatty, Mike Welton, explained "Balfour Beatty believes the project could only proceed with substantial extra work and expense and with considerable further delay. Accordingly, in concert with Impregilo of Italy, it has decided to withdraw from the project."

The Dam planned for the Kurdish region of Turkey and would have made more than 30,000 homeless and affected up to 78,000 people. It would have drowned dozens of towns and villages including the world historic site of Hasankeyf, submerging a total area the size of Greater Manchester. This massive dam would also have made it possible for the Turkish government to control the flow of the Tigris river into Syria and Iraq - no prizes for guessing that this would've been seen as fightin' talk. As part of an international Swiss-led consortium including 7 multinationals and 8 governments, Balfour Beatty were seeking $200 million in export credit guarantees from the British Government to build the dam - that's British taxpayers money that would have been used to pay for the ethnic cleansing of Kurds in Turkey.

The World Commission on Dams (WCD) published a report of large-scale hydroelectric dams in November last year saying, "in many cases dams have led to the irreversible loss of species populations and ecosystems." It went on to explain that "Impacts of dam building on people and livelihoods have been...devastating." In other words, Dams are NOT environmentally friendly and they are NOT a viable answer to increasing energy demands if you care about anything other than profit.

The Ilisu Dam is now not likely to go ahead. But, there are 22 other dams planned in the Tigris and Euphrates basins in Turkey that must be stopped. Amec, another British construction company, want to build a dam in Uyseffely in the Jordanian minority region of Turkey. If their plans go ahead they will displace 12-15,000 people and its predicted environmental impact goes off the scale. They are trying to secure a £68 million export credit guarantee from the taxpayer - that means if Turkey defaulted on the payment, taxpayers will foot the bill. See www.foe.co.uk and www.ilisu.org.uk, or call 01865-200550.