“The rivers are ‘leased’ to the companies for 49 years. However, the fact that the lease is temporary doesn’t help the local population – the woodland around the power stations has already been cut down, the fish in the rivers are affected and the possibilities to use the water are reduced”, says Mine Islar.
She is part of LU’s Linnaeus environment LUCID (see box), from which the first three doctoral students defended their theses during the spring. All specialise in sustainability and the environment, but from different angles.
Mine Islar is a political scientist originally, and has studied the relationship between the state and the local community in relation to the construction of the new power stations. Or, more to the point, the lack of a relationship.
“Even if there has been a major impact on the landscape and agriculture in the areas concerned, it is first and foremost the lack of participation in decision-making that makes people angry. No one had spoken to them; one day the diggers just turned up”, says Mine Islar.
The anger has led to several local protest movements, which in turn have combined into a national movement. Demonstrations have been held, building sites have been occupied – often by groups with many women and children, which makes it more difficult to evict them – and politicians in Ankara have been lobbied.
As the world’s population increases and the climate becomes warmer, water is becoming an increasingly common cause of conflict. Often the issue in Turkey has been privatisation of cities’ drinking water, which leads to higher prices and difficulties for the poor. However, another conflict area is the running water of rivers, where the needs of traditional users collide with those of intensive farming, industry and power stations.
Water power is a sustainable form of energy and as such there is merit in encouraging it. Mine Islar also believes that in the case of Turkey, it should have been possible to reach a compromise between the different interests.
“The decision-makers just didn’t think of it in time. If they had investigated the needs of the local population and analysed the environmental impact of the new construction, they would probably have been able to reach acceptable compromises”, she says.
Mine Islar will be working on an academic EU project in the autumn, and after that will decide whether she wants to stay in academia or not. If not, she would like in some way to help reduce the conflicts and improve communication in sensitive social and environmental issues.
“People are needed who can talk to villagers, businesspeople and civil servants. At present they are on different wavelengths and need an ’interpreter’ who can bridge the gaps”, she says.
INGELA BJÖRCK
LUCID
LUCID is the name of one of Lund’s Linnaeus environments from 2008. Its full title is the “Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability”. The returns from the centre in the form of theses are now being seen: three of the doctoral students who were admitted in 2009 completed their PhDs this spring, and most of the others will finish in the autumn or next spring. Five new doctoral students were admitted in 2011, and a further five will start this September.
The researchers in LUCID come from four faculties and various different subjects. The research is therefore very broad. The topics being studied by doctoral students include agricultural development in Cameroon, the attitude towards climate change refugees in international politics, environmental issues and social movements in Bolivia and developing countries’ historical dependence on fossil fuels.
