- hot-spots
- toxic waste
- Cameroon
- Pollution of Cameroon's water resources
Problems
Water pollution in Cameroon
The pollution of Cameroon's water resources comes from the discharge of dirty water, which is produced by industrial and domestic activities, as well as by the various pharmacological and agricultural operations necessary to produce the food and goods that Cameroon's society needs. In light of recent events, Cameroon's rivers have been heavily contaminated with mercury and cyanide due to gold prospecting activities.
Cameroon in terms of water ressource
The territory of Cameroon is divided into five watersheds: Chad, Niger, Congo, Sanaga, and Atlantic coast. The river Sanaga, which flows from the center to the ocean, constitutes the hydrographic axis of the country. Several shorter rivers flow directly into the ocean: Nyong, Wouri, Mungo, and Ntem. In the north of the country, the rivers have an extremely variable but generally flow low The most important are the Benue and the Logone.
Water residuals
Cameroon has an estimated 9.2 million habitats, estimated in 1983. Presently, there are practically no sewerage networks, with rare exceptions in the newly constructed areas of Yaoundé and Douala. These two cities, with a population of about 0.5 and 0.6 million, produce wastewater with a BOD load of 11,700 tonnes and 14,000 tonnes per year respectively. In Douala, the Wouri estuary is considered a polluted area, but quantitative data are not available for that. In Yaoundé, some sewage treatment plants are already in use (for example the Congress palace).
Industrial effluents
In Cameroon, as in most African countries, there are several industries, such as breweries, sugar factories, food processing and processing plants, and tanneries, which evacuate large quantities of organic waste. In Mbandjock and Nkoteng where a sugar industry is found, evacuate their waste directly into the Sanaga, without any treatment. The tannery of Ngaounderé and the breweries of Bafoussam, Yaoundé, and Douala also dump their waste directly into the rivers.
Regulation
Cameroon has no specific legislation on environmental protection, but several texts and regulations deal with environmental issues in a number of sectors. There are several point sources of industrial pollution in Cameroon but, if we consider the country as a whole, the main problems of water pollution appear mainly due to the absence of sewerage networks. Construction of these networks is planned in most major cities.
Gallery
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Timelines
2022
September 06
An environmental think tank in Cameroon has raised the alarm over the pollution of rivers in the country’s east and north. The Centre for Environment and Development (CED) says two Chinese gold mining companies are discharging toxic mercury and cyanide into the rivers every day, putting downstream communities and wildlife at risk. “The latest tests, conducted in several waterways in June 2022, including the Djiengou River, which runs through the village of Kambélé III … in eastern Cameroon, showed traces of mercury in the surface of waters flowing down from the nearby gold washing ponds,” Marc Ansèlme Kamga, an environmental researcher at CED, told Mongabay. “The results of the water samples taken showed an average daily use of 40 liters [10.5 gallons] of mercury and cyanide per Chinese company.” Kamga estimateed that Mencheng Mining and Zinquo Mining each have 20 people working in washing ponds along the Djiengou River, with each worker using as much as 2 liters (half a gallon) of mercury and cyanide per day.
2021
June 05
Cameroon produces six million tons of waste each year, including 600,000 tons of plastic waste. Piles of plastic ended up in the Vouri River in Douala, one of Africa's most polluted rivers after the Nile and Niger, where environmental activists collected it and sent it for recycling. Scientists estimate that four million tons of waste end up in the world's oceans each year. The increase in plastic pollution can be attributed to improper waste management. In an attempt to solve this problem in Cameroon, the association Matanda Ecotour or Friends of the Mangroves is collecting waste from the Vouri River. The group has collected an estimated 12,416 kilograms of plastic in five months for 2021 and plans to collect more than 700,000 kilograms by the end of this year. The activists then take the trash to a factory for recycling.
2017
March 09
NAMé Recycling, Cameroon's river plastic recycling company, collects and recycles plastic waste from businesses, households, streets, and rivers in Cameroon. Their goal is to turn an environmental problem into an economic, environmental, and social opportunity. NAME Recycling has collected and recycled the equivalent of 150 million plastic bottles since it began operations in 2016.