Company Profile: IMPREGILO

Viale Italia 1
I-20099 Sesto San Giovanni
Milano
ITALY
Tel: +39 02 2442 2111
Fax: +39 02 2442 2293
E-mail. iglspa@impregilo.it
impregilo@impregilo.it
Web: http://www.impregilo.it
CEO and chair of the board of directors:
Franco Carraro
Business Development Director: Carlo Maria Gallizzi

Based in the Northern Italian city of Milan, Impregilo has been involved in constructing more than 160 hydroelectric projects around the world. The majority of the company’s orders are for infrastructure, hydroelectric dams and large-scale civil engineering works.² Impregilo’s web-site describes the company as a "world leader" in construction of dams and hydroelectric schemes.³ Through a series of mergers, Impregilo is today the construction unit of Fiat, the Italian car-maker.

In 1981, Cogefar, an Italian construction company founded by Bastogi in 1975, created the original Impregilo shareholder company named Impregilo S.p.A.; in 1990, the Fiat Group, through Fiatimpresit, acquired Cogefar, creating Cogefar-Impresit and consequently Impregilo.

The present structure of Impregilo is the result of a one-year merger in which Impresit-Cogefar Girola Lodigiani teamed up to become the Impregilo Group S.p.A., Italy’s largest construction group.⁴ Sub-sequently, Impregilo acquired the Italian civil engineering company, Castelli. The major shareholders in Impregilo are Fiat Group (5%), Gemina (16%, partially controlled by the Fiat Group), Girola (2%) and the private commercial bank Banca di Roma (3%). The remaining 74% of Impregilo’s shares is floating capital controlled by minority shareholders.

Fiat was founded in Turin in 1899, and quickly became Italy’s most important car manufacturer. The company diversified so that the Fiat Group is one of the world’s biggest industrial holdings with 888 companies operating in 62 countries employing 242,000 people.⁵ In the 1980s, Fiat was accused of illegally selling arms to Iran.⁶

As a result of a downturn in the Italian construction industry, Impregilo started to lose money in 1992 and only returned to profit in the second half of 1995.⁷ In 1996, Impregilo’s chair, Franco Carraro, told the Financial Times: "All our rivals have big domestic markets, but the market is still very depressed within Italy so we try to be competitive abroad."⁸ In 1998, 61.7% of the company’s sales were in countries outside Italy, an increase of 10.4% over the previous year. European sales fell 40.5% in the same year.⁹ The Impregilo Group operates in 50 countries and has over 600 subsidiaries and associated companies. The company employs 31,109 people.¹⁰ In 1998, Impregilo’s sales were $1.15 billion, an increase of only 0.1% over 1997 and approximately equal to sales in 1993.

In 1996, Impregilo won the biggest overseas building contract ever obtained by an Italian company, a mosque in Abu Dhabi. When built, the $417 million mosque will cover an area equivalent to 10 football pitches and will include a chandelier the height of a seven-storey building.¹¹ Also in 1996, Brazilian officials announced that Impregilo was to build a $55 million road between Sao Paulo in Brazil and Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.¹²

One of Impregilo’s board members is C. Lotti, the head of the engineering consulting firm C. Lotti and Associati, Italy’s biggest water engineering consulting firm, which recently did the preliminary studies for the Dai Ninh dam in Vietnam.

Impregilo has never answered questions from the Italian NGO, Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale, as to whether the company has any environmental policy. Yet Impregilo has been involved in many environmentally destructive hydropower projects world-wide. It is one of the companies currently bidding for a slice of the lucrative Ilisu dam contract in Turkey [See box on Ilisu].

IMPREGILO AND DAMS

YACYRETA, ARGENTINA/PARAGUAY

Impregilo is the main contractor, with a 20.75% share, in the Eriday consortium for the 2,700 MW Yacyreta dam [See box on Yacyreta]. The project, originally scheduled to be completed in 1989, is still not finished, and the most recent estimated completion date is 2001. Eriday filed 844 claims with the implementing agency, Entidad Binacional Yacyreta (EBY), seeking between $800 million and $1 billion in additional expenses that the contractors claim was incurred as a result of delays completing the project. In early 1999, EBY rejected 80% of these claims, and said it would discuss the remaining 20%.¹³

ERTAN, CHINA

In October 1991, as lead company of the Ertan Joint Venture, Impregilo won a $776 million contract to build the 3,300 MW Ertan hydropower dam on the Yalong river, a tributary of the Yangtze river in Sichuan province. The Ertan Joint Venture includes Torno (Italy), Dumez (France), GTM (France), Holzmann (Germany), Hochtief (Germany) and Changian Gezhouba Engineering Bureau 8B (China).¹⁴ The implementing agency is the Ertan Hydroelectric Development Corporation (EHDC).

The five million cubic metre dam is the largest concrete arch dam currently being built in the world, and 35,000 people were evicted when the reservoir was flooded. The World Bank funded the project with a $380 million IBRD loan in 1992 and, in 1995, a second IBRD loan for $400 million and a $150 million guarantee for private commercial funding of the dam. The loans amount to the largest sum the World Bank has ever granted a single project.¹⁵ Other funding has come from the Chinese government ($795.4 million), Sichuan province ($795.4 million) and $30 million from the US export credit agency, the ExIm Bank. The total project budget is $2.5 billion.

The dam started to generate electricity in 1998, but by September that year, the Xinhua News Agency reported that Liu Junfeng, the general manager of Ertan Hydropower Development Corporation, "has become increasingly anxious" because he could sell only 60% of the dam’s output. Sichuan province has an electricity glut after a steady slowdown in economic growth from 12.6% in 1994 to just 7% in 1999.¹⁶ A second, but potentially more serious problem, is that the electricity generated at Ertan is significantly more expensive than that produced by smaller power stations that have sprung up since Ertan’s inception in 1991.

In October 1999, the project was running at half capacity and was expected to lose more than Rmb1bn ($72.2 million) over the year. Losses are expected to spiral even higher in 2000 after the last two of six turbines are installed for a total generating capacity of 3,300 MW.¹⁷ Describing the situation as "bleak", the Financial Times said: "Ertan’s difficulties may . . . complicate efforts to bridge an Rmb25bn funding shortfall for the second phase of the Three Gorges, possibly via foreign lenders."

XIAOLANGDI, CHINA

Impregilo is lead partner in the Yellow River Contractors (YRC) joint venture. The YRC, which also includes Hochtief (Germany), Zublin (Germany) and Construction Bureau Nos. 7 and 14 (China),¹⁸ has been contracted by the Yellow River Water and Hydroelectric Power Development (YRWHDC) to construct the 154 metre-high, 1,670 metre long, 1,800 MW Xiaolangdi dam in Henan province. Impregilo’s share in the contract is worth $313 million.

In 1994, the World Bank agreed a $570 million loan package for the Xiaolangdi project ($460 million IBRD loan for dam construction and $110 million IDA loan for resettlement). The Bank subsequently agreed a new loan of $160 million, for conservation of the Loess Plateau and another $60 million in retroactive financing. The US ExIm Bank provided $55 million in export credits to the project. The total project cost is $4.5 billion.

Construction is planned to be completed in 2002. To make way for the reservoir, 180,000 people will be evicted from their homes and about 300,000 people will be affected by the project. The reservoir will also flood 100 archaeological sites where 10,000 year-old relics, and objects from the Song Dynasty (900-1279 AD), have been found. The World Bank-funded resettlement project includes the construction of housing, roads, mines, factories and electricity lines. Some 11,000 hectares is to be allocated for farming, which is to create 37,000 jobs, a tiny proportion of the almost half a million people who will be affected by the project.¹⁹ In 1997, Nicholas Hope, director of the China and Mongolia department of the World Bank, told the Financial Times that the Xiaolangdi project is "a model".²⁰

The waters of the Yellow river are the most silt-laden in the world, and other dams on the Yellow river have run into serious sedimentation problems. For example, the Sanmexia dam 130 kilometres downstream of Xiaolangdi was completed in the early 1960s.²¹ Within three years of the reservoir filling, the river had dumped more than 50 billion tonnes of sediment into the upper end of the reservoir. Originally planned as a 1,200 MW storage dam, Sanmexia finally started to generate electricity in 1973 as a 250 MW dam.²² The reservoir flooded 66,000 hectares of some of the most fertile farmland in the world and involved the eviction of 410,000 people.²³

AKOSOMBO, GHANA

The Impregilo Group was involved with building the 912 MW Akosombo dam on the Volta river. The dam was built to supply electricity to the 100% foreign-owned Valco aluminium smelter. The World Bank provided funding for both the dam and the smelter.²⁴ About 80,000 farmers were forced to move to make way for the 8,500 square kilometre Volta reservoir — the largest in the world.²⁵ The 740 flooded villages were replaced by only 52 new ones. The reservoir rose faster than anticipated and many people were forced to flee, leaving behind their belongings for which they were never compensated. The resettled farmers did not have enough land to farm, and in 1966 the World Food Programme and USAID sent over 6,000 tonnes of emergency food aid in an attempt to prevent the resettled villagers from starving.²⁶

After a serious drought in 1982-83, electricity supplies in Ghana were rationed for three years. Akosombo was re-designed to have a minimum operating reservoir level several metres lower than the original design, but in 1994 the reservoir level fell below the new operating minimum, resulting in electricity blackouts of up to 20 hours a week.²⁷ Water-borne diseases such as schistosomiasis, ochocerciasis and malaria have increased dramatically since the filling of the reservoir.²⁸ The trapping of silt behind the dam has also led to severe coastal erosion downstream, with beaches and sections of the highway along the West African coast from Ghana to Nigeria being washed away.

CHIXOY, GUATEMALA

Impregilo was the contractor for the $12.7 million El Jute gallery, which adjusts the water level at the Chixoy dam. The El Jute gallery project was funded with Italian bilateral aid and funding from the Guatemalan government. The Chixoy dam was built during the military dictatorship in Guatemala, from 1977 to 1985, in the midst of a violent civil war. The project is notorious for the massacre of nearly 400 Maya Achi indigenous people who lived in the area of the proposed reservoir [See box on Chixoy].

NATHPA JHAKRI, INDIA

Impregilo won a $234 million contract with Jindustan Construction (India) to construct the headrace tunnel and surge shaft of the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri hydro-power project on the Satluj river. The World Bank withdrew its funding from the project after miscalculations in the height of the dam were revealed [See box on Nathpa Jhakri].

LESOTHO HIGHLANDS WATER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Impregilo is one of the main contractors of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), involved in the Katse and Mohale dams and the construction of water tunnels [See box on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project]. Impregilo has a 30% share in the Highlands Water Venture joint venture which won the contract to build the Katse dam on the Malibamatso river. The Highlands Water Venture also includes Kier International, Hochtief, Bouygues, Stirling International, Group 5 and Concor.²⁹

Impregilo also won a $77 million contract as lead company in the Highlands Water Venture joint venture to build the 145 metre-high rockfill Mohale dam on the Senqunyane river — the main works of phase 1B of the Lesotho Highlands Water Development Project. The total cost of phase 1B is $1.13 billion, funded in part with a $45 million World Bank (IBRD) loan. The European Investment Bank and several European export credit agencies are also involved in financing phase 1B. Impregilo, as part of the Mohale Tunnel Contractors joint venture (with Hochtief and Concor), also won a contract to construct the 32 kilometre long tunnel from the Mohale dam to the Katse reservoir.³⁰

In November 1999, Impregilo was one of 12 multinational companies charged by the Lesotho authorities with having "wrongfully, unlawfully and corruptly make payments/transfers" to Masupha Sole, the former director of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority.³¹ Impregilo is accused of having paid $250,000 to Sole, an accusation that Impregilo denies. Romano Allione of Impregilo told the Washington Post: "No payment for whatever sum at whatever time has been made by Impregilo" to Sole.³²

BAKOLORI, NIGERIA

Cogefar (now part of Impregilo) constructed the Bakolori dam on the Sokoto river, a tributary of the Niger. (Fiat Impresit of the Fiat Group started the works in 1975; construction was completed in 1983; in 1989, Fiat Impresit acquired Cogefar and Impregilo S.p.A. from Bastogi-General Costruzioni and therefore created Cogefar-Impresit which existed until the establishment of the Impregilo Group in 1995.) The project resulted in the eviction of 13,000 people who received no compensation for 12,000 hectares of farmland and the trees that they lost. The contractors applied for compensation for delays caused by farmers’ protests. In February 1980, the protests culminated in a blockade of the dam site and the shooting of at least 126 people — and possibly as many as 386. The dam reduced the area of rice grown downstream by 7,000 hectares and that of dry season crops by 5,000 hectares. A survey in the 1980s revealed that three-quarters of the dry season irrigators in affected villages had given up farming. Only the richer farmers could continue farming.³³

KAINJI, NIGERIA

In the 1960s, the Impregilo Group was involved in building the 760 MW Kainji dam on the Niger river, a project that forced out 44,000 people to make way for the reservoir. Hundreds of thousands more people were adversely affected as their grazing and agricultural lands are no longer irrigated by the river’s annual flood³⁴ [See also Balfour Beatty]. The project included a huge lock served by a 6 kilometre-long canal capable of holding four 5,000 tonne barges at a time. According to a 1994 report, no barge had ever used the lock in almost three decades since it was installed.³⁵ In 1999, at least 39 people were killed and thousands were left homeless after floodgates were opened to release rising floodwaters at the Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro dams. More than 210 villages were flooded or washed away.³⁶

EL CAJON, HONDURAS

Impregilo was the contractor of the 300 MW El Cajon dam on the Humuya river. The project was partly funded by the World Bank and the dam was completed in 1995. However, the level of water in the reservoir fell after it was filled in 1991, and on completion the dam was able to generate only 80-152 MW, around half its installed capacity. From July 1994, electricity in Honduras was rationed to 10 hours a day, and half of all public lighting was turned off.³⁷ Some 4,700 people lost their homes to the dam.³⁸

GHAZI BAROTHA, PAKISTAN

Impregilo won a $512 million contract as lead company of a consortium to build the 1,450 MW Ghazi Barotha dam, along with Ed Zublin (Germany), Campenon Bernard (France), Saadullah Khan (Pakistan) and Nazir (Pakistan). The consortium’s bid was $300 million lower than the originally projected project cost.³⁹ The construction works include a barrage on the Indus river at Ghazi, seven kilometres south of the Tarbela dam, and diversion of water into a 95 metre-wide, 52 kilometre-long concrete channel to Barotha, where the power station is being built. The channel will support a 1,600 cubic metre-per-second flow, the largest in the world. Works were originally scheduled to be completed by March 2000, but delays have occurred because of technical, social and financial problems.

The anticipated total cost of the project is $2.24 billion. The World Bank loaned $275 million through IBRD for the construction of the water diversion channel. The Asian Development Bank lent $200 million for the barrage. Other lenders include Japan’s OECF ($137 million), the European Investment Bank ($50 million) and Germany aid agency Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW). By 1997, the project was at least two years behind schedule because the government had not contributed its share of the funding, as stipulated by the donor agencies.

Around 20,000 people will lose some or all of their land because of the project. The land compensation is also delayed because the implementing agency, Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), has acquired less than half of the required new land.

Impregilo is accused by local and international trade unions of not respecting a joint agreement on wage and working conditions. In 1998, the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions reported that Impregilo, with the help of local police, locked out 5,000 workers. In addition, management and security forces physically abused the workers, large numbers of whom were arrested, and union leaders’ relatives were detained and some even tortured. On 22 December 1998, at Impregilo’s request, the Pakistani president implemented a Presidential Ordinance that deprived WAPDA workers of their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The suspension of trade union rights of WAPDA’s 130,000 employees puts the company under the direct control of the armed forces.⁴⁰

TARBELA, PAKISTAN

Impregilo was the lead contractor in a consortium of French and Italian firms that built the World Bank-funded Tarbela dam on the Indus river. The dam is three kilometres long, 143 metres high and has the largest volume of any dam in the world: 106 million cubic metres.⁴¹

The dam has been plagued with problems ever since 1974 when the reservoir impoundment began. Two of the four tunnels being used to control the rate of filling were damaged and forced to close. A week later one of the two remaining active tunnels collapsed, bringing down nearly half a million cubic metres of concrete and rock. The reservoir had to be emptied immediately to avoid a disaster. Engineers then discovered around 70 "sinkholes" in the reservoir bed, which they tried covering between 1975 and 1978 by dumping thousands of tonnes of earth by the barge load. One sinkhole that appeared in 1984 was still there in 1991 and could affect the permeability of the dam.⁴² Downstream of the dam, a huge 50 metre-deep, 300 metre-wide plunge pool formed in 1976 when the main spillway began operating. During the following year’s floods, the rocks at the base of the spillway eroded, threatening the safety of the huge concrete spillway. The auxiliary spillway had similar problems and the contractors had to undertake a three-year "rock stabilisation programme".⁴³

The rescue works on the Tarbela dam boosted the cost from an estimated $800 million in 1968 to $1.5 billion by 1986.⁴⁴ Only continual monitoring, remedial work and maintenance have stopped the dam from releasing a tidal wave into the densely populated Peshawar Valley below.⁴⁵ In 1999 Gohar Ayub, Pakistan’s Minister for Water and Power, reported that the Tarbela reservoir "is silting up and it has silted 32%". In response to a question about who was responsible for wrongly estimating the sedimentation during the design stage, Ayub answered, "Let us not start digging graves. Let us look at the future."⁴⁶

DEZ, IRAN

The Impregilo Group was involved with building the Dez dam, Iran’s highest. The water from the reservoir went to irrigate 16,000 hectares, only one-fifth of the area that the dam’s designers claimed would be irrigated. The irrigated land was largely for the benefit of foreign agribusiness corporations, including Mitsui, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, Shell, John Deere and Transworld Agricultural Development Corporation. About 17,000 farmers lost their land to make way for the dam and agribusinesses. Years later, many were still landless and jobless. Until the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, the agribusiness firms that managed the new plantations in the area included Shell, John Deere, Dow Chemical, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, Diamond A. Cattle, and Hawaiian Agronomics. As one executive put it: "They develop the water first and we come and farm it".⁴⁷

CARUACHI, VENEZUELA

In 1994 (as part of a consortium), Impregilo won a $60 million contract for the preliminary works of a rockfill dam on the Caroni river, part of the 2,076 MW Caruachi hydropower dam. The implementing agency, Electrificacion del Caroni (Edelca), hopes to complete the project by 2001. Impregilo won in 1997 a further $50 million contract for the construction of the spillway channel of the Caruachi project. The works include the digging of three million cubic metres of rock and are scheduled for completion in 2002. Among the other lenders are Corporacion Andina de Fomento, and Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Austrian and Canadian export credit agencies [See section on Kvaerner].

ITEZHITEZHI, ZAMBIA

The Impregilo Group was involved in building the Itezhitezhi dam on the Kafue river, a main tributary of the Zambesi. The dam was partly funded by the World Bank. The floodplain of the Kafue river was once one of the richest wildlife habitats in the world. The Itezhitezhi dam was built upstream of the Batoka Gorge dam and prevented the remaining seasonal floods of the Kafue river, thus effectively wiping out the habitat.

LOWER KIHANSI, TANZANIA

Impregilo won a $55 million contract to construct the Lower Kihansi gravity dam and the associated 300 MW power station. The $257 million project was due for completion by the end of 1999. The project area includes two of Tanzania’s protected areas: a regional forest reserve and a national park. The World Bank funded the project with an IDA loan of $123 million. Among the other lenders are NORAD (Norway, $57 million), SIDA (Sweden, $29 million), KfW (Germany, $16 million), and the European Investment Bank ($32 million).

KARIBA, ZAMBIA

The Impregilo Group was the contractor for the Kariba dam on the Zambesi river. The dam was partly funded by the World Bank and was designed by Coyne et Bellier. About 57,000 people were forced to move to make way for the reservoir. In 1958, police of the then British colony of northern Rhodesia shot dead eight villagers and wounded over 30 more during the evictions.⁴⁸ In addition, more than 100 workers were killed during the construction of the dam.⁴⁹ The arid resettlement lands are far away from the reservoir. The government decided that the area around the reservoir would be best used for tourists. Villagers have dug bore holes and built small dams but, according to a 1997 article on the Tonga ethnic people resettled by the dam project, the water supply is neither reliable nor safe. Ironically, the name Tonga means "the people of the great river". Today, Tonga families and their relatives are separated by the reservoir.⁵⁰ The reservoir behind the dam covers more than 1,000 square kilometres. At one point, one-fifth of the water surface was clogged with aquatic plants.⁵¹

1 This section draws on Tricarico, A., 1999, part of a report by the NGO Campagna to be published in 2000.
2 Simkins, 1996.
3 Impregilo, www 1.
4 Simkins, 1996.
5 Fiat, www 1.
6 ECN, 1987.
7 Simkins, 1996.
8 Simkins, 1996.
9 Wright, www 2.
10 Wright, www 1.
11 Simkins, 1996.
12 Ambito Financiero, 1996.
13 EIA, 1999.
14 H&D, 1996e.
15 BJ Review, 1997.
16 Financial Times, 1999b.
17 Probe International, 1999; Kynge, J., 1999.
18 H&D, 1996e.
19 IWP&DC, 1995k.
20 Walker, 1997.
21 IWP&DC, 1995k.
22 McCully, 1996: 108.
23 McCully, 1996: 66.
24 Gitlitz, 1993: 39.
25 McCully, 1996: 7.
26 Gitlitz, 1993: 39.
27 McCully, 1996: 136.
28 Gitlitz, 1993: 40.
29 IWP&DC, 1995i.
30 World Tunnelling, 1999.
31 Greybe, D., 1999,
32 Blustein, 1999.
33 McCully, 1996: 69.
34 McCully, 1996: 68.
35 McCully, 1996: 152.
36 Coulson, 1999.
37 McCully, 1996: 136.
38 McCully, 1996: 324-325.
39 Financial Times, 1995,
40 ICFTU, 1999.
41 McCully, 1996: 12.
42 McCully, 1996: 123.
43 McCully, 1996: 124.
44 McCully, 1996: 124.
45 McCully, 1996: 123.
46 Khan and Hussian, 1999.
47 Moore Lappe, F. and Collins, J., 1977: 217.
48 McCully, 1996: 73.
49 McCully, 1996: 97.
50 Tulloch, 1997.
51 McCully, 1996: 39.

IMPREGILO: DAMS AT A GLANCE

("Impregilo Group" refers to the involvement of Impregilo, Cogefar, Impresit, Girola or Lodigiani in a project.)

ARGENTINA

The Impregilo Group was involved with building the Piedra del Aguila dam. Electrowatt was involved with the final design of the dam.

ARGENTINA AND PARAGUAY

Yacyreta dam [See main text].

BRAZIL

Impregilo is involved in the 176 MW Ponte de Pedra hydropower dam. If built, the reservoir would flood 14.5 square kms and the project includes 130 kms of power lines. The project is currently in the final planning stage and due for completion in 2003.

CHINA

Ertan and Xiaolangdi dams [See main text]. In 1997, Impregilo was part of the Wan Long Joint Venture that won a $193 million contract to build the Shanxi Yellow River Diversion Project to supply irrigation and industrial water from the Yellow River to the cities of Taiyuan and Datong. The contract includes the construction of a 43 km-long tunnel — the longest of its type in the world. The World Bank is contributing $400 million towards the total anticipated project cost of $1.35 billion. The other members of the Wan Long Joint Venture are Cooperativa Muratori E Cementisti (Italy), the China Water Conservancy and the Hydropower Engineering Bureau (China).

COLOMBIA

The Impregilo Group was involved with building the Chivor dam which was partly funded by the World Bank. It also built the S. Rafael project, which aims to guarantee fresh water to Bogota. The project was funded in two tranches, the first $35 million by the World Bank (IBRD) and the Colombian government, the second by Japan’s OECF. Impregilo was the contractor for both tranches.

ECUADOR

Impregilo won a $100 million contract for the civil works and a $125 million contract for electro-mechanical equipment at the 210 MW Daule Peripa dam. Work began in 1995 and the project is due to be finished in 1999. It was funded with $55 million from the Italian government, $140 million from the Corporation Andina de Fomento (Ecuador) and $30 million from the government of Ecuador. Impregilo also built Phase C of the Paute dam, Ecuador’s largest hydropower dam, partly funded by the World Bank. The Inter-American Development Bank has provided $289 million to the project since 1974, and in 1992 funded $14.2 million towards a project to improve watershed management and reduce siltation in the reservoir.

EGYPT

Impregilo was part of the Italian consortium that constructed the 84 MW New Esna dam, commissioned in 1995.

GHANA

Akosombo dam [see main text and introduction]. The Impregilo Group also helped build the Kpong dam on the Volta river, partly funded by the World Bank.

GUATEMALA

Chixoy dam [See main text].

HONDURAS

El Cajon dam [See main text].

INDIA

Nathpa Jhakri dam [See main text].

INDONESIA

Impregilo is part of the joint venture building the $141 million Singkarak hydropower dam project. Italian government bilateral aid is involved in the project financing.

IRAN

Dez dam [See main text].

IVORY COAST

The Impregilo Group was involved with building the Kossou dam.

LESOTHO

Katse dam [See main text]. Impregilo also won a $77 million contract as lead company in the Highlands Water Venture joint venture to build the 145m-high rockfill Mohale dam on the Senqunyane river. It was also part of the Mohale Tunnel Contractors joint venture (with Hochtief and Concor) which won a contract to construct the 32km-long tunnel from the Mohale dam to the Katse reservoir. Lahmeyer is part of the joint venture responsible for the design and supervision of the tunnel. The company also won a $35 million contract to build the 5.7 km-long Matsoku Diversion Tunnel to the Katse reservoir.

MALAWI

Impregilo won a $75 million contract in Phase I (the first two units of 32 MW each) of the Kapichira dam. The World Bank is backing the project as part of the Power V project. Impregilo is a 50% participant in a joint venture with another Italian company, Salini. The company was also involved in the 46 MW Tedzani III hydropower dam on the Shire river.

MEXICO

Impregilo had a 41.5% share in the consortium that built the 292 MW Zimapan dam on the Moctezuma river. Other members of the consortium included Dumez (France), Cogefar Ferneral (Italy) and Condux S.A. de CV (Mexico). The $417 million project was partly funded by the World Bank and construction began in 1989. ABB and Kvaerner supplied equipment.

MOROCCO

Impregilo was part of the consortium that built the 1,600m-long, 90m-high Al Wadha landfill dam on the Ouerrha rive, near the city of Fes. The total contract value was $360 million. Coyne et Bellier was one of the consultants for the project. Impregilo is involved in the construction of the 110m-high, 150m-long Asfalou arch dam.

NEPAL

In 1997, Impregilo won a $129 million contract to construct the 144 MW Kali Gandaki A dam. It will construct the main civil works, including the 43m high dam, the diversion tunnels and the powerhouse by July 2000. The Nepal government is paying for the project through a $160 million loan from the Asian Development Bank and other foreign assistance. The Kali Gandaki A is the largest of the six projects being built in Nepal as an alternative to the 1,000 MW Arun III, which was shelved when the World Bank withdrew because of strong local and international opposition.

NIGERIA

Bakolori and Kainji dams [see main text]. Impregilo also won a $13 million contract to build the Funtua earthfill dam and had a 70% share in the CIBAS consortium which built the $42 million Suleja dam to supply water to the city of the same name. Impregilo Bakolori built the Watari irrigation project, which was partly funded by the World Bank.

PAKISTAN

Ghazi Barotha and Tarbela dams [See main text].

SUDAN

The Impregilo Group helped build the Roseires dam on the Blue Nile. Coyne et Bellier was design consultant, and VA Tech Voest MCE won the contract to rehabilitate three turbines.

TANZANIA

Lower Kihansi dam [See main text].

TURKEY

Ilisu dam [See box on Ilisu].

UGANDA

In 1997, Impregilo won a $65 million contract to build a new 200 MW hydropower station on the White Nile called the Owen Falls dam, which will be near the existing dam of the same name built in the 1960s.

VENEZUELA

Impregilo won a $60 million contract for the preliminary works of a rockfill dam on the Caroni river, part of the 2,076 MW Caruachi hydropower dam. Impregilo won a further $50 million contract to build the spillway channel of the Caruachi project [See section on Kvaerner]. Impregilo also helped build the $49 million Taguaza earthfill dam that was finished at the end of 1998.

ZAIRE AND RWANDA

Impregilo was the contractor for the World Bank-funded Ruzizi II dam on the Rwanda-Zaire border. The Bank estimated in its 1984 pre-project appraisal that only 115 people would be affected. In fact, 15,000 lost their lands and homes to the project [See section on Coyne et Bellier].

ZAMBIA

Itezhitezhi and Kariba dams [See main text].

ZIMBABWE

Impregilo won a $35 million contract for the construction of the 2.5 million cubic metre Mukorsi dam, and in 1994 Cogefar-Impresit started building the Zhove irrigation dam.