China continues Africa dam project despite Ebola outbreak

Conakry

AS workers at Western companies fled West Africa during the world's worst-ever Ebola outbreak, a state-owned Chinese company carried on.

China International Water & Electric Corp completed the Kaleta dam on budget and a year ahead of schedule in July, ending chronic power shortages in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Construction continued even as companies including London-based Rio Tinto and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal paused projects in the region. "The Chinese saved us," Lansana Fofana, 63, says, as he stands on the US$526 million hydroelectric dam that China financed and he oversees.