The withdrawal late last year of Balfour Beatty from the $1.5bn (£1.05bn) Ilisu dam project in Turkey has put the spotlight on export credit agencies (ECAs) and their role in encouraging ‘green’ projects. The unconfirmed reason for Balfour Beatty’s withdrawal was the environmental pre-conditions laid down by the UK’s ECA, the Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD).
The project has been the subject of a decade-long environmentalist campaign alleging that damming the upper reaches of the Tigris River at Ilisu would lead to the loss of significant architectural sites, such as the Mesopotamian city of Hasankeyf, as well as the displacement of the area’s large Kurdish population and the threat of water disputes with Turkey’s downstream neighbours, Syria and Iraq.
