THE SOUTHEASTERN ANATOLIA PROJECT AND THE QUESTION OF LARGE DAMS: THE DILEMMA OF DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEASTERN TURKEY

摘要

The Southeastern Anatolia Project (Gunay Adadolu Projesi) includes 22 large dams and 19 hydro-electrical plants. The project is expected to promote industrial development in the region, creating some three million jobs and producing socio-economic change. Benefits from the production of electricity and agriculture are estimated at $1.8 billion a year between 2001 and 2010 and at $3.3 billion per year after completion of the project. Without land reform in the area, however, there is a danger that the project may strengthen feudalism and strengthen existing inequality. The project is likely to significantly erode the fragile ecology of the region. In 2000, the World Commission on Dams reported that the world would be significantly poorer without the 45,000 large dams which have been built. However, in many cases, there might have been cheaper and better ways to produce the energy, food and fiber. Since 1970, there has been a decline in the building of large dams and some dams in North America have been decommissioned. That trend may continue with the increase in social and political conflicts over dams and the decrease in available state funding.