Communities empowered to fight against climate injustice caused by Dam projects
By Nambu Bernadette Franka
The proposed Lom Panga Dam in the East Region of Cameroon is said to be designed to regulate the flow of the Sanaga River to help increase energy production. The Dam is also said to have significant environmental and social impacts, flooding over 30,000 hectares of typical hardwood forest.
The Action for Conservation of Endangered Species (ACES) through the African Climate Justice Collective (ACJC) has been seeking ways for local communities and civil society organizations, to have a voice to raise their concerns about climate change in issues around large-scale infrastructure projects in the world including the Lom Panga and Nachtical Hydroelectric dams.
According to the General Coordinator of ACES, Angwa Gwendoline, one of the climate change resilient methods is agroecology practice.
“We seek to understand the impacts of the dam on communities and understand/identify community resilient strategies,” she said.
Some community members spoke to CNA about the climate situation caused by the various projects.
“We are suffering from diseases linked with portable water. The rivers we used to drink from have been polluted by the project and other activities. The boreholes constructed by EDC are no longer working, even fishing now is a problem,” a fisherman stated.
“I had 5 hectares for cocoa farm, but the weather has been so dry, this made my farm to catch fire,” Mr Dido further said.
ACJC has therefore demanded urgent action from all actors to address the impact of the Lom Panga Dam and to empower affected communities.
