Growing Pains: Daredevil Construction and the Future of Ethiopia

Africa’s fastest-growing economy balances between dreams of the future and the shackles of the past

For those libertarians who feel that OSHA and any and all regulations on workplace safety are the very essence of neo-Stalinism, I submit the construction industry in modern Ethiopia. Please note that the scaffolding supporting this multi-story concrete building is basically lashed-together sapling trunks, and that while the workers are all wearing hardhats, the basic safety equipment you routinely see on construction sites in the West is pretty much lacking – no safety lines, no walkie-talkies to communicate with the crane operator, no nets or wind barriers at the periphery. Feel free to apply for a gig here, fellas.

This picture was taken under the baking-hot noonday African sun. The bucketful of cement on the way up seems to arrive at irregular intervals, and sometimes much to the surprise of the workers on the roof. I saw one bucket swing a little wildly and clip a guy off his feet. A little lower and to the side, and he would have been spread across the roof like grisly human jam on unyielding toast. (Click to enlarge)

Everywhere you look in Ethiopia, you can see massive infrastructure projects underway. High-rise apartments/office complexes, new highways, bridges, underpasses — the skyline of Addis Ababa is littered with cranes, and even the relatively sleepy resort town of Bahir Dar has big projects every few blocks. But the downside of such a mad scramble to develop is that growth at this scale does not happen without cutting a few corners.

It looks like a giant game of pick-up-sticks, but these crude, crooked, stripped saplings are the foundation of just about every large-scale construction project I've seen here. It's truly breathtaking when you see people scrambling up these rickety structures that are 10 or more stories above ground, and that you visibly flex and sway with the weight and the wind. Repeat: no safety lines or harnesses. (Click to enlarge)

The government here is in a race to get First World-style development projects done either before the international investment funds dry up, or the population growth exceeds the current carrying capacity of both the land and the cities, resulting in a systemic collapse and yet another cycle of war/famine/massive mortality.

All the countries on the African continent are walking this same razor’s edge; well, those that are not mired in civil war, ruled by evil kleptocracies, or that are content with resource-extraction economies that will last only as long as the mines or oil wells hold out.

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