By Nformi Sonde Kinsai
A local NGO, Global Village Cameroon, GVC, has, in a joint report with International Rivers Network, on the proposed Lom-Pangar Dam in Cameroon, condemned the lack of transparency from the early stages of the conception of the project. This view, contained in the joint report, was presented to participants and the press at a one-day workshop on World Commission on Dams.
The workshop held at GVC's headquarters in Yaounde, January 4. The Lom-Pangar Dam project featured prominently in President Paul Biya's address to the nation last December 31, as one of the major long-term development projects envisaged by government.
The confluence of the Lom and Pangar rivers found in the East Province would host the reservoir of the dam. The two rivers are also tributaries to the River Sanaga.
In the study undertaken between October and December 2005, GVC notes that project documents including the environmental impact assessment and management plan, resettlement action plan and information on social impact mitigation measures as well as a regional development plan are being hidden by the stakeholders.
The absence of public information on the decision-making process and on the schedule of public consultations; lack of information about resource mechanisms and proper grievance procedures for affected people and no publicly available project timeline is considered by GVC as unacceptable in modern project design and implementation.
The findings, as reiterated by the Executive Secretary of GVC, Dieudonné Thang, also show that there is lack of alternative development options for the Province. It also cites risk of flooding of protected forests, farmlands and pastoral zones; anticipated strains on resources, health and livelihoods; unclear project benefits to affected communities and widespread wariness of more broken "development" promises.
They expressed worry over anticipated degradation of the Deng Deng Forest Reserve, which according to officials of GVC and International Rivers Network is a critical biodiversity habitat, which was to be protected under Cameroonian law and as a condition of the World Bank financing of the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project.
The report also predicts the submergence of a portion of the oil pipeline not built to withstand the pressure of the reservoir, and the potential impacts and safety risks of alterations to the pipeline route.
The report also reveals that the major beneficiary of the dam project will be the Alucam aluminum smelter, jointly owned by the government of Cameroon and Canadian based Alcan.
"On October 26, 2005, Alucam announced plans to more than double its production and has indicated that it requires the construction of Lom-Pangar Dam for energy generation in order to do so," the report states.
GVC holds that displaced village communities would be the losers as in other projects such as in the cases of Mape and Bamendjing dams, respectively. In a vigorous defence of the project, the Technical Adviser No 1 in the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, Dudley Acha Sama, dismissed claims by GVC and International Rivers Network that there is gross lack of transparency as far as the project is concerned.
Noting that all documents pertaining to the project are still under preparation, Sama described the criticisms as too early and therefore unjustified. He talked of how the finished documents would be deposited in libraries across the country for public consultation.
The workshop was also characterised by presentations from Ms. Terri Hathway of the US-based International Rivers Network; Noél Tameta Ngouffo and Nongni Bakker all of GVC. Dieudonné Thang moderated the question and answer session.
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