Ethiopian officials blame construction delays of a $4-billion dam on the country’s military-industrial conglomerate METEC, which was pulled off the job last year over corruption charges
ASOSA, Ethiopia - Construction of a $4-billion dam at the heart of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter has been delayed five years as engineers had to replace shoddy work by a conglomerate pulled off the job last year, a project official said.
“We have removed some of the steelworks on bottom outlets and replaced them with new ones,” Belachew Kassa, the site coordinator and deputy head of the project, told Reuters during a trip to the dam last week. “We also readjusted and repaired some of the steel structure works.” Controversy in Ethiopia has focused on METEC’s involvement in the project to dam the Nile, but Egypt sees the effort as an existential threat, since the river supplies nearly 90% of its fresh water for drinking, farming and industry.
Early this year, Ethiopia handed contracts to fulfil METEC’s work to a group of foreign companies that include Italy’s Salini Impregilo SpA, GE Hydro France, China Gezhouba Group Corp, Voith Hydro Shanghai and China’s Sinohydro Corp[SINOH.UL].
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