(Geneva, 6 October 2005): The
United Nations team of experts dispatched on 21 September to Lake Nyos,
in Cameroon's Northwest province, to assess the stability of the natural
dam warns of the risk of potential collapse of the dam within the next
five years, in
a report released today in Geneva,
and calls for urgent measures to prevent it.
The United Nations team has visited
the dam and concluded that a breach of the natural dam in Lake Nyos
is imminent, with a high likelihood for this to occur within the next five
years. According to the report, such a breach will lead to severe flooding
in the downstream Nyos Valley, affecting an estimated then thousand people
in Cameroon and Nigeria. The report also anticipates that the breach will
lead to a reoccurrence of the 1986 carbon dioxide eruption, affecting a
further unknown number of people.
In view of this, the report strongly recommends that the Cameroon Authorities decide on an approach to prevent the dam wall from breaking and facilitate the return of 12,000 displaced people from the 1986 disaster.
The proposed mitigation project includes the pumping of water from the deeper levels of the lake containing high concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxin, thus, reducing the water level by 20 meters, after which the dam wall can be removed.
In parallel, a sustainable programme for the return of displaced people during the 1986 disaster should be developed and integrated into the Lake Nyos Mitigation Project.
Estimated at US$ 15 million, the mitigation project could be implemented in two years.
The Joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Unit team was dispatched in Cameroon at the request of the Government. The team was composed of two experts from the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.
For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, 917 367 5126, mobile 917 892 1679; Kristen Knutson, OCHA-New York, 917 367 9262; Rene Nijenhuis, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 1815, e-mail address:nijenhuis@un.org
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