Power to the people

Liu Xiuping's work building hydroelectric power stations across Africa has brought him pride and joy, but not without some suffering along the way

For Liu Xiuping coming to Africa has been a series of trials and triumphs. The 44-year-old has spent more than a decade in the continent and during that time has experienced the highs of career success and being made an honorary chieftain as well as the misery of malaria twice.

Liu is now in charge of construction for Ghana's Bui hydroelectric project, a 400-megawatt hydroelectric power station located in northern Ghana, which will become the second-largest hydropower station in the country after the Akosombo station.

Under a partnership between the government of Ghana and Sinohydro Corporation Ltd, the international arm of Sinohydro Group, one of the world's largest Chinese hydropower and construction contractors in the world, work on the project began in April 2008 and is expected to end in this June.

The Chinese company is responsible for all construction work and technical support. Ghanaian engineers will receive training in China for three months followed by a one-month of on-site training.

Liu, from Yichang in central China's Hubei province, has worked on nine infrastructure and hydro projects in Angola, Sudan and Ethiopia since arriving in Africa in 2001.

Sitting in Sinohydro's West Africa headquarters in Accra in his Ghanaian tribal chieftain clothing, Liu says the Bui site is an EPC project, or engineering, procurement and construction project. It is a common form of contracting arrangement in the construction industry.

Ghana uses hydro, gas and crude oil to generate power. Hydropower provided more than 45 percent of the nation's power supply in last year, a figure expected to increase by another 20 percent over the next three years, according to Ghana's Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing.

"All Ghana's current hydropower stations were built three or four decades ago by British and US companies," Liu says.

"Ghanaians don't really have the technology to build a large power station. This to a certain extent provides an opportunity for us to seal the deal."

The Bui contract is worth $800 million, provided by China's Export-Import Bank. It is a mixed loan program, with half the money loaned on a concessional basis, with terms more generous than market loans. It is the largest preferential loan project the Chinese government has offered in Africa.

During the construction period the Ghanaian government is paying interest on the loans using cocoa beans. When the project is completed it will begin to repay the loan from power service charges over the next 30 years.

"Affected by the current economic climate, many Western companies are financially incapable of handling such a big project like this," Liu says.

"The temperature on the construction site is so high and it is cumbersome to transport goods and materials to the work site. So the construction quality demands are quite different compared with other parts of the world."

Liu, who majored in hydropower engineering at Wuhan University in Hubei province, says building a hydropower station requires significant technical expertise and finding qualified and disciplined workers has proved a challenge.

To tackle the issue, Liu tightened the management of local employees and invited a team of Pakistani workers to Ghana, all of whom had been employed by Sinohydro's Pakistan branch for at least seven years.

The Chinese company provided an independent camp for the Pakistani workers including bath and prayer rooms, and hired three Muslim chefs to take care of their diet. Internet access is also available in their camp.

Liu says hiring the Pakistani workers was part of a long-term strategy to improve the company's operations in Africa, but a talent pool of African employees is also being developed that Sinohydro hopes will provide workers for future projects across the continent.

"We have found some excellent workers in Ghana," he says. "There are about 750 local workers who have been working with us for more than two or three years. We are willing to take them on to other projects, if they wish to go. They can pack their bags at any time."

During busy periods, Liu says, the Bui project has 1,800 Ghanaians, 320 Chinese and 150 Pakistanis working on site. Sinohydro has also brought about $48 million worth of manufacturing machinery, materials and engineering software into Ghana for the project, and wages, accommodation, food and other services cost the company about $5 million per month.

Relocation of local residents in the area of the dam took place in June 2011. Sinohydro helped to build a new residential area including 212 houses, a primary school, kindergarten, clinic, church and community center, which Liu says are better than those where the people lived before.

The company brought over six doctors and nurses from China and hired five Ghanaian nurses to work at the clinic, which offers free medical care.

For his contribution to the community Liu was made an honorary chieftain in September 2011

"From a long-term perspective, we will base ourselves in Ghana to further expand our business in West Africa," he says.

"We have already entered the market in Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo and Benin, where there is a need to build more large-scale civil engineering projects, ports and hydropower projects."

Liu is proud of his achievements, but they have not come easily. He has had malaria twice, first in Angola and then in Ghana. Both were painful experiences but they have not deterred him. After the Bui project is completed, he will begin work on the company's new hydropower station project in Liberia.

zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/01/2013 page22)