Pietro Salini, CEO of the WeBuild company that built the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), told the Italian daily Il Messaggero that the GERD represents a model on how strategic infrastructures can change the face of an entire region. “It is a giant project,” said Salini, who was at the GERD inauguration in Addis Ababa Sept. 9. “We diverted the course of the Blue Nile and built two dams that created a 172 km-long reservoir, with structures for controlled management of water. The project requested two large works in an area totally without infrastructures, where 25,000 persons, local and Italian ones, worked.
“GERD is the symbol of an Africa that decides to invest in its own future, with courage and vision. The dam has been entirely financed by the government and the people of Ethiopia, showing that it is possible to build large works even in difficult contexts, if determination and confidence are there. The work represents a virtuous model and shows how strategic projects can generate real development.”
Salini stressed that the GERD “is also a message to our own country [Italy]: major works demand vision, perseverance and collaboration. And when they are ready, they change the lives of millions of people for the better, as in the case of the Bridge” over the Strait of Messina. (WeBuild is the leading partner in the Eurolink consortium that will build the Messina Bridge, which has finally been approved after 50 years of discussion, and environmentalist and international opposition.)
