WORLD BANK PROJECT DISPLACES 440 PEOPLE IN ARMENIA ACCORDING TO ICIJ INVESTIGATION
Kristine Aghalaryan
13:46, April 17, 2015
According to "Evicted and Abandoned", a recent global investigation
issued by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ), an estimated 440 people in Armenia have been physically
or economically displaced by the World Bank'sElectricity Supply
Reliability Project.
The above US$39 million project was approved for financing in May 2011.
In addition to the above project, the ICIJ claims that another three
World Bank (WB) projects in Armenia have been cited as having confirmed
or possible displacement between 2004 and 2013. (The WB doesn't have
information on the effects produced by the rest).
These three were a 2011 $18 million Emergency Supplemental Financing
of the Rehabilitation of the Irrigation Systems; a 2013 $45 million
project to improve vital roadways; and a 2013 $30 million project to
modernize irrigation systems.
According to the ICIJ, all four represent 7% of all WB-financed
projects in Armenia.
Hetq contacted the World Bank office in Yerevan for further
clarification and we were told to put our inquiry in writing. (Hetq
will publish their reply as soon as we receive it)
Evicted and Abandoned is a global investigation that reveals how the
World Bank Group, the powerful development lender committed to ending
poverty, has regularly failed to follow its own rules for protecting
vulnerable populations.
In all, more than 50 journalists from 21 countries worked together
to document the bank's lapses and show their consequences for people
around the globe. The reporting team traveled to affected communities
in more than a dozen countries - including indigenous hamlets in the
Peruvian Andes, fishing settlements along India's northwest coast
and a war-scarred village in Kosovo's coal-mining belt.
One of the key findings of the investigation is that over the
last decade, projects funded by the World Bank have physically or
economically displaced an estimated 3.4 million people, forcing them
from their homes, taking their land or damaging their livelihoods.
http://hetq.am/eng/news/59695/world-bank-project-displaces-440-people-in-armenia-according-to-icij-investigation.html
Kristine Aghalaryan
13:46, April 17, 2015
According to "Evicted and Abandoned", a recent global investigation
issued by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ), an estimated 440 people in Armenia have been physically
or economically displaced by the World Bank'sElectricity Supply
Reliability Project.
The above US$39 million project was approved for financing in May 2011.
In addition to the above project, the ICIJ claims that another three
World Bank (WB) projects in Armenia have been cited as having confirmed
or possible displacement between 2004 and 2013. (The WB doesn't have
information on the effects produced by the rest).
These three were a 2011 $18 million Emergency Supplemental Financing
of the Rehabilitation of the Irrigation Systems; a 2013 $45 million
project to improve vital roadways; and a 2013 $30 million project to
modernize irrigation systems.
According to the ICIJ, all four represent 7% of all WB-financed
projects in Armenia.
Hetq contacted the World Bank office in Yerevan for further
clarification and we were told to put our inquiry in writing. (Hetq
will publish their reply as soon as we receive it)
Evicted and Abandoned is a global investigation that reveals how the
World Bank Group, the powerful development lender committed to ending
poverty, has regularly failed to follow its own rules for protecting
vulnerable populations.
In all, more than 50 journalists from 21 countries worked together
to document the bank's lapses and show their consequences for people
around the globe. The reporting team traveled to affected communities
in more than a dozen countries - including indigenous hamlets in the
Peruvian Andes, fishing settlements along India's northwest coast
and a war-scarred village in Kosovo's coal-mining belt.
One of the key findings of the investigation is that over the
last decade, projects funded by the World Bank have physically or
economically displaced an estimated 3.4 million people, forcing them
from their homes, taking their land or damaging their livelihoods.
http://hetq.am/eng/news/59695/world-bank-project-displaces-440-people-in-armenia-according-to-icij-investigation.html