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BALFOUR BEATTY PULLS OUT! THE ILISU DAM CAMPAIGN WOULD LIKE TO SEND A HUGE THANKYOU TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS: NONE OF THIS COULD HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED WITHOUT YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT
Balfour Beatty, the lead contractor for the controversial Ilisu Dam in the Kurdish region of SE Turkey, has announced its withdrawal from the project on social, environmental and economic grounds. Its Italian partner, Impregilo, has also withdrawn. The withdrawal follows a sustained campaign by human rights and environment NGOs, including shareholder resolutions against Balfour Beatty.
Balfour Beatty had applied for export credit support from the UK Export Credits Guarantees Department (ECGD) and from the US Ex-Im Bank. With the withdrawal of the company from Ilisu, both agencies have ceased to be involved in the project. The company admits that the project failed to meet the conditions laid down by the ECAs for export credit support. Impregilo's application for export credits with the Italian export credit agency, SACE, is also now withdrawn.
Sulzer Hydro, the company which heads the consortium that hopes to build the dam, has said that it is looking for a partner to replace Balfour Beatty. However, a well placed Turkish source told Channel 4 news, "Other European firms won't be interested now and the Ilisu project may not go ahead." (see below) The UK, Italian and US governments were due to decide whether or not they would support the project. However, the withdrawal of Balfour Beatty and Impregilo has let them off an embarassing hook - and avoided a potentially precedent-setting decision.
Major UK departments were understood to be aganist the project - but Prime Minister Tony Blair was reported to be pushing it in order to secure Turkish military support for the war against Afghanistan. Campaigners are calling for the ECGD and other ECAs to adopt legally-binding human rights, environment and development standards in order to screen out projects such as Ilisu. At present, the ECGD only has a weak set of "business principles".