NESRIN BAYAZIT,
Madam, - With reference to the news piece in your edition of February 3rd which contained some misleading information on the Ilisu Dam, I would like to bring to your attention certain facts concerning this project.
1. The Ilisu dam, which is part of the South-eastern Anatolian Project (GAP) is not designed for irrigation, but only for power generation. The Ilisu power station will have a capacity of 1,200 MW and is expected to produce 3,800 GWh of power per year. The water passing through the turbines has to flow back into the river bed.
2. River water flowing into Iraq and Syria will not be polluted because the use of water for hydropower is non-polluting. As a result of Ilisu, new sewage treatment facilities will be built upstream, thus improving water quality.
3. Ilisu will act as a regulator, holding back water during the winter floods and releasing it during the summer droughts.
4. Claims that 15 towns and 52 villages will be flooded are misleading. Hasankeyf, a small town, is the only one that will be affected and only its lower parts will be flooded. The citadel will stay above the water. Archaeologists and scholars from Turkey and several other countries are currently working to excavate, record and preserve as much as possible.
5. A comprehensive programme of resettlement and compensation is planned. The total number of people who will have to be resettled is around 15,000, comprising about 2,000 families. They will be given the option of moving to agricultural or urban areas. It is a well-known fact that most hydropower plants involve resettlement.
Those who may not be satisfied with compensation will have the right to refer the matter to the courts for further compensation. The dam will not operate for at least seven to eight years and the resettlement and compensation issues will be resolved by then.
6. Ilisu will also have major environmental benefits such as avoiding the emission of millions of tons of greenhouse gases from alternative thermal power plants. - Yours, etc.,
NESRIN BAYAZIT, Counsellor, Turkish Embassy, Dublin 4.