Open letter requesting EBRD to withdraw from the Ombla hydroelectric plant project

Advocacy letter    |    26 October 2011

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The Ombla hydropower plant is planned to be built in a cave in Croatia that is part of a proposed Natura 2000 site, but the environmental, economic and social impacts have only insufficiently been assessed by the project promoters.

More than 30 Croatian and international civil society organisations therefore urged the EBRD to not approve a loan for the project.

More detailed comments and criticism can also be found in the letter’s annex, containing Green Action’s comments on the proposed Ombla hydro power plant loan (pdf).

UPDATE 1

Reacting to the great public interest in the project, the EBRD published its responses with summaries of all comments. (Download the document in pdf here.)

Please note that the comments summarised by the EBRD do not necessarily represent Bankwatch’s position. They have been compiled from different organisations and individuals, to many of which Bankwatch is unrelated.

UPDATE 2

After the postponement of the loan decision, Bankwatch and Green Action re-iterated the concerns regarding the project and informed the EBRD board of directors that the majority them had not been addressed by the responses from the EBRD and the project sponsor HEP.

The letter was sent on Thursday, November 17, 2011, five days before the date of the postponed EBRD loan decision.

Download the letter as pdf