An Essay by Onur Işık

Is the Ilısu Dam really beneficial?

There are many ways to develop economy. One of them is to build dams in correct places of a river or any flowing water. On the other hand, the Ilısu Dam, which is a part of vast GAP project, is planned to be built in a place that involves the ancient city of Hasankeyf. By building a dam in this place we will not only destroy a historical value but also a touristic place that can be considered as a wonder.

Hasankeyf is absolutely a wrong place to build a dam. First of all, as a historical value, Hasankeyf is a unique place in the world. It consists of perched rocks made by nature and the Tigris. Throughout the history, this place was very important and was used as a capital city by many different civilizations. Second of all, by destroying Hasankeyf, we will cause a noticeable fall in tourism in this area, because the tourists who come in Hasankeyf want to see something different than the other historical places. In contrast, some people think that it is the perfect place to build a dam and they don't care about Hasankeyf. Nevertheless, they should realize that they can transport the dam plans to wherever suitable. But they can't carry nature and the archaeological heritage away from here. In conclusion, we have to find another suitable place for the dam.

To summarize, there is not any logical reason to build this dam especially in Hasankeyf. I think that we can easily find another and may be more suitable place to build it.

written by Onur Işık, C16