ÊLIH - Ecologist Hüseyin Akil warned that the HEPP planned to be built on Zorê Stream will cause a great natural disasters.

 

On February 13, 2014, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change announced the "Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP)" to be built by Maya Energy Production Company on an area of 67 thousand 450 square meters on the Zorê Stream, located between the Sason district of Êlih(Batman) and the Pasur (Kulp) district of Amed(Diyarbakır). The EIA decision was positive. Murat, Ercan, Rıdvan, Mehdin and Medeni Çiçek, residents of Herîvê village, filed a lawsuit against the decision to Diyarbakır 3rd Administrative Court on March 9, 2021. The court decided to cancel the project on the grounds that the "EIA positive" report "lacks compliance with the law and legislation".

 

THE COMPANY MADE A NEW APPLICATION

 

Following the current cancellation decision, the same company made a second application, saying, "The EIA Report has been prepared in accordance with the letter of the General Directorate of EIA Permit and Inspection of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, within the scope of the circular No. 2009/7 of the repealed Ministry of Environment and Forestry, General Directorate of EIA and Planning."

 

Maya Company made a 1,256-page new company application under the name "Metin HEPP (Kayser Dam), quarries, crushing-screening facility and concrete plant project". The "EIA positive" decision given after the company's application was suspended by the Diyarbakır Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change on September 6.

 

Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP) Deputy Serhat Eren applied to Diyarbakır Administrative Court against the decision, on behalf of the villagers, and Êlih(Batman) Bar Association applied to Batman Administrative Court, requesting "stay of execution".

 

AGRICULTURAL AREA WILL BE DESTROYED

 

Ecology activist Hüseyin Akil, who fought together with the villagers in 2014 against the HEPP planned to be built on Zorê Stream, evaluated the re-issued "EIA positive" decision. Stating that the area where the HEPP is planned to be built is the villages that were evacuated in the 1990s and to which the citizens returned afterwards, Akil said: “The project, which will be carried out by Maya Energy Production Company, covers 452 parcels and an area of 67 thousand 450 square meters. The life of the project, which is leased to this company for 49 years, is 50 years. The electricity that the HEPP, which is persistently planned to be built, will provide very little. The project, which will not bring any income to the district, provincial or national economy, will also destroy a large agricultural area."

 

CALL FOR AWARENESS TO THE PUBLIC

 

Expressing that the HEPP project in Zorê Stream is hostile to nature, Akil said: “There is an agricultural area of 11 thousand square meters in Hamzalı alone. There is also animal husbandry. The local people make their living from animal husbandry. As a result, thousands of people will be displaced from both their land and their bread. A HEPP to be built here will cause great destruction of nature. What kind of dishonesty is this? They started causing destruction there while the trial phase was still going on. It is the duty of everyone who calls themselves 'human' to prevent the destruction. The public needs to be sensitive in order to prevent natural disasters.”

 

MA / Fethi Balaman