Wednesday, November 15, 2000
Financial Times

Donors may be forced to quit dam project European  governments  will  have to withdraw
taxpayers'  support  for  the controversial  Ilisu  dam  in  Turkey  because  it  breaks  all
seven of the key principles  for dam building to be set out in an international report
tomorrow, campaigners claim.

 
The  report of the World Commission on Dams, set up in 1997 by the World Bank  and  the
International Union for the Conservation of
Nature, will be launched  in  London tomorrow by Nelson Mandela, the former
South African president.

 
The  report  will  set out a new framework for decisions on dam building in developing
countries  based  on five core values - equity, efficiency, sustainability,    participatory
decision-making, and accountability.

It  proposes  seven  strategic  policy  principles to guide governments: gaining public
acceptance,   comprehensive  options  assessments, taking account of existing   dams,
sustaining   rivers   and   livelihoods, recognising entitlements and  sharing  benefits,
ensuring compliance with decisions, and sharing rivers between countries.

 
More  than  100  environmental  and  human  rights campaign organisations will issue  a
joint  appeal  to  governments  and international institutions to back the  report,  which  says
that  many  dams fail to deliver promised benefits.

However,  the  strongest  immediate pressure will be on the British, Swiss and Italian
governments, which are considering requests for export credit guarantees  amounting  to
more  than  Dollars 700m (Pounds 486m) from companies  seeking  to  build  the  Ilisu dam
on the Tigris river.

 
Campaigners  claim  the  largely  Kurdish local communities have not been consulted, that
Turkey has not considered alternatives, and that neighbouring  Iraq  and  Syria  have  not
consented. Turkey denies all these claims.

In  aletter to be sent tomorrow to Stephen Byers, the trade and industry secretary,  Friends  of
the Earth will claim that continued government support for  the  project  would  be
tantamount to rejection of the report.

Tony  Juniper,  policy director, said FoE would go to court to stop British participation
unless the government withdrew support for a Dollars 315m  export credit sought by Balfour
Beatty, the UK construction company.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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