ADB response to EECA hydropower investor outreach
...Your email lists three projects that ADB is involved in; Nenskra and Shuakhevi HPPs (also known as Adjaristsqali) in Georgia and Sevan-Hrazdan Hydro-cascade in Armenia. ADB's involvement with each of the projects is as follows:
Nenskra
ADB has not taken any decision to finance this project. We still remain in the process of conducting due diligence and the project has to go through multiple stages of internal approvals before we can approach our Board of Directors for approval. Should ADB decide to fund the project at the end of its due diligence process, it will be ensured that all of ADB’s policies will be fully adhered to.
Adjaristsqali
In 2014, the ADB Board approved a loan of $75 million from ADB’s ordinary capital resources and administration of a $15 million loan from the Canadian Climate Fund for the construction, operation and maintenance of Shuakhevi (175MW) and Skhalta (10 MW) hydropower plants on the Adjaristsqali River.
Sevan Hrazdan
ADB provided a $25 million loan in 2013 for the rehabilitation and modernization of the Sevan–Hrazdan Cascade Hydropower System. Rehabilitation and restoration was completed in 2018, and the loan was repaid in 2020.
Human Rights considerations are embedded across ADB's environmental and social policies and strategies. These policy and strategy documents have elements that encompass human rights issues in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP). Aspects of human rights relevant to ADB’s interventions are factored in environmental and social impact assessment during project appraisal (even though we do not explicitly label such assessment as ‘human rights due diligence’), which lays the foundation for strengthening project design and implementation. ...