ENERGY-CAMEROON:
A Dam Good Idea, or a Bad One?
Sylvestre Tetchiada

YAOUNDE, Jan 30 (IPS) - With just months to go before construction of a hydroelectric dam gets underway along Cameroon's Lom river, environmentalists are raising concerns about the initiative.

"While laudable, the Lom project in its present form could accelerate the decline in living standards of local populations," Dieudonné Thang, executive secretary of Global Village Cameroon, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in the capital of Yaoundé, told IPS.

Groups such as the Circle for the Environment and Development claim the project will completely alter the lives of about 30,000 indigenous inhabitants of the area, notably the Baka and Bakola pygmy groups.

And, the experiences of millions who have moved to make way for dams in other parts of the world do little to suggest that this change will be to the good, says Paul Zemdjio of the Integrated Programme to Fight Against Poverty: another Yaoundé-based NGO.

"It is proven that the experience was devastating for many of them, from an economic, cultural and psychological point of view," he notes.

"These projects, which aim to speed up development, are generally the cause of greater poverty, environmental degradation and human rights violations."

In fact, the hardships that Zemdjio speaks of have already been experienced in Cameroon, with the construction of dams such as Mape et Bamendjing.

Called Lom Pangar, the latest dam is to be built about 350 kilometres east of Yaoundé, and is scheduled to be completed by 2009.

NGOs say that in addition to its possible effect on local populations, the dam will flood the Pangar-Djerem animal reserve -- already affected by the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline, and a railway line built in 1970. This track, the Transcam II that runs between Yaoundé and Ngaoundéré in the north, has allowed people to invade the reserve.

The non-governmental organisations also fear no research will be done to ascertain the dam's effect on the environment and communities.

As for those living in the vicinity of the Lom Pangar site, they reportedly have mixed feelings about the initiative.

Some see the dam as bringing improvements to their region, which is the poorest in Cameroon in terms of infrastructure and development. Others fear that the dam will place their land under water, as well as medicinal plants and ancestral relics that they are deeply attached to.

Terri Hattaway of the International Rivers Network, an American NGO, also sees the project as having potential for both good and ill.

"We are not against the construction of this dam, which may encourage development," she told IPS.

"Our wish is for government to take into account the aspirations of all those who will be affected by construction of the dam, and for these persons to participate in the decision-making process."

But Nongni Bakker, an environmental lawyer with Global Village, says officials have yet to adopt such a conciliatory stance: "The project (Lom Pangar) was presented to local communities in such a way that their rejection of it would have appeared like rebellion."

Nonetheless, at the urging of NGOs, people in the vicinity of Lom Pangar listed their concerns in an open letter to the water and energy ministry (Ministère de l'Eau et de l'Energie, MINEE) earlier this month.

As important as the social and environmental issues related to this project is its cost, with civic groups expressing alarm at the debt that will be incurred with financing the mammoth initiative. According to MINEE, more than 120 million dollars are needed to build the dam; Cameroon is expected to borrow these funds from the World Bank.

According to MINEE, Cameroon is the African country with the second-largest potential for generating hydro-electric power (the Democratic Republic of Congo has the biggest potential). However, Cameroon is not self-sufficient in energy at present.

"The construction of the dam at Lom Pangar is aimed at improving energy provision to the people of Cameroon," says Dudley Achu Sama, technical advisor at MINEE. (END/2006)