Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Cameroon

United Nations calls for urgent attention to prevent dam collapse in Cameroon

(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

Disclaimer

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.