Lom Pangar Dam: Dutch NGO SNV compensates those affected

Electricity Development Corporation (EDC) and the Netherlands Development NGOs (SNV) signed a service contract for project management restoration activities, on Friday in Yaounde.

The agreement was also for improving the living standards of local communities affected by the proposed construction of the hydroelectric plant in Lom Pangar (East) and the implementation of Local Development Plan (LDP). The total funding of the social and environmental component is estimated to cost some FCFA 40 billion, official sources informed APA.

Financed by the French Development Agency (AFD), through the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) and the World Bank (WB), this fund complements the Compensation and Resettlement Plan (PIR) of the affected inhabited since 2012.

It will finance capacity building of populations affected by the project, the implementation and monitoring of all restoration activities of living standards of people in the communities along the dam, as well as offer technical assistance to committees and sectoral groups working through the implementation of the different Memoranda of Understanding between the client (EDC) and government partners.

More specifically, it involves the construction of social infrastructure and other mitigation measures in order to improve the standard of living of residents of the dam and increase the economic development of the Eastern Region. Also, all measures called to be completed by the PDL whose purpose is to contribute to poverty reduction through the combined action of local authorities, grassroots communities, and the private sector.

The mission entrusted to SNV, said the CEO of EDC, Theodore Nsangou, "is particularly important in that it puts local populations at the center of development issues and the management of direct and indirect impacts of the construction of the hydroelectric dam in Lom Pangar, while it target activities related to the development of agriculture, livestock, fishing, gold panning, health, archeology, biodiversity, development of ecotourism, potable water supply, mobilization and information to stakeholders."

The specifications of SNV also follows much of the main construction site of the plant with associated projects, including hydroelectric power station at the foot of the dam, the transmission line of the site to Bertoua, access roads, relocation of the Lom Pangar village wood recovery and the construction of a bridge over the Lom.

With an installed capacity of 30 megawatts, the plant, whose partial impoundment was held on September 26, consists of the construction of a dam of 6 billion cubic meters in order to improve the flow of River Sanaga and increase electricity production capacity on the South Interconnected Network (RIS).