Nenskra Hydropower Plant
Description: The 280 MW Nenskra hydropower plant, with 125 m high dam and a storage reservoir, is planned to be constructed in the Upper Svaneti region of Georgia. If realized, it will deprive the local indigenous communities of their ancestral lands and cause an irreparable damage to the river and mountain ecosystems.
Nenskra is intended to produce winter season electricity for the domestic market and could export electricity, possibly to Turkey.
Total budget and financers:
Cost: USD 1,083 billion
- The Korean Development Bank (KDB) has provided a USD 86 million loan.
- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a USD 214 million loan together with an additional 5% equity share (USD 15 million) in early 2018, but as of June 2021 has not signed a loan agreement.
- The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved USD 150 million loan in early 2018, but as of June 2021 has not signed a loan agreement.
- The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) considers USD 100 million.
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) considers awarding the project USD 314 million.
The project is being realized by JSC Nenskra, a joint venture of the Korea Water Resources Corporation & the Georgian state’s Partnership Fund.
In 2018, Salini Impregilo, the project’s main construction contractor, left the project without public explanations. Later the news had it that Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Hyundai E&C) and Limak won a USD 737 million tender to realize the Nenskra project.
Violation of the international standards
In 2020 EBRD and EIB’s independent mechanisms found the Nenskra HPP project non-compliant with the standards of these two international financial institutions. The investigation took 2 years and it was launched after complaints submitted to the EBRD and EIB by the local community representatives of Svanety, Georgian watchdog Green Alternative and the international CSO CEE Bankwatch Network.
The independent mechanisms of the two European banks said that the project did not match the EBRD and EIB’s requirements in such areas of human rights and environmental protection, as indigenous people’s rights, the protection of cultural heritage, gender issues, assessment and management of environmental and social impacts, information disclosure and engagement of local communities and other stakeholders.
Environmental and Social Impact
Not only at the the area where the Nenskra dam is planned to be built, but also throughout the 17 kilometers downstream the Nenskra river, and the 9 kilometers downstream the Nakra river various river habitats will be altered and irreversibly damaged. The impact will be caused by the drastic changes in the water flows and sedimentation regime.
The reservoir that will form behind the Nenskra dam is expected to submerge around 200 hectares of the Caucasian beechwood on the surrounding mountain slopes. The construction and operation of the Nenskra project could affect brown bears, wolves and lynxes, the West Caucasian tur and the Persian leopard – the two species already considered globally endangered. The risk of avalanches, mudflows and landslides has not been properly recognized.
The environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for the project, which was supposed to account for the natural wealth in the area and be a key red flag was not sufficient. Even an external review of the assessment report commissioned by the Georgian environment ministry determined the project’s ESIA contained a range of insufficiencies. However, after the project’s design was significantly modified to meet requirements set by the international financial institutions backing the project, in February 2019 the Georgian environment ministry made a decision that the original, flawed ESIA remained valid. The Geogian NGOs decided to challenge the ministry’s decision in court.
As early as in 2016 study by NGO’s found that women stood to bear a disproportionate brunt from building of the Nenskra hydropower plant. The project’s ESIA contained only a symbolic paragraph on the gender aspect. The study authors assessed Nenskra hydro’s ESIA failed in assessing any gender impacts the Nenskra project might have, including the various implications for the communities, and specifically on women of bringing in a large, male-dominated workforce for the construction of the project.
Public Opposition
Through years the project construction plans have faced numerous rallies and opposition as from local so the international community.
From its inception, the project has increased tensions within and among Svan communities in the region. Rallies have been organized for years in Svaneti and in the capital Tbilisi to protest the heavy toll the project is set to take on local communities and the pristine nature.
More than 3,000 signatures have been collected in support of the Lalkhor declaration from March 2018.
As many as 96 022 Europeans signed the international petition in 2019, calling on the EBRD and EIB presidents, not to sign the loan contract for the Nenskra hydropower project. They united in solidarity with the Svans, an indigenous people in Georgia, in their fight against the Nenskra Dam.