The situation is reportedly under control by the outfit's authorities.

In the night of 3 breaking 4 August, a heavy downpour of rain overwhelmed the Waste Water Treatment plant of the Limbe-based National Refining Corporation (SONARA) causing a spill of hydrocarbon into the sea waters. Informed by the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) for Fako, Zang III, the SONARA experts of the Quality Control, Environmental Security and Inspection Division immediately rushed to the scene. According to the Director of the unit, Derick Takere, traces of hydrocarbon were found on water under the National Shipyard (Chantier Naval et industriel du Cameroun) platform and waters along the shore between Chantier Naval and Fakoship.

Cameroon Tribune met Mr. Takere in his SONARA Office yesterday August 19 morning and he explained that a team of experts that went to the scene observed about 4-5 buckets of fish dead. He explained, "Chantier Naval had been doing a kind of a dyke, they made an enclosure where water was cut off from the sea. It now formed a kind of lake which was no more in communication with the sea. On Monday 5 August we realised that there was a lot of fish that had died in that lake. That was the first thing we noticed. The second thing we noticed was that there was a light amount of hydrocarbon on the surface of the water and the third was that the Shipyard had built a tribune there and that there was hydrocarbon under the tribune. The main thing we observed as a cause was that the heavy rains overwhelmed our installations and the water that was supposed to have been treated by our installation was carried away into the water." The impact of the pollution itself, he said, was not extra-ordinary. "You needed to take a close look to see it. What looks more serious is what has been constructed by Chantier Naval that looks like a pond. It is not in communication with the sea", Mr. Takere went on.

Short, Long-term Solutions

The SONARA Official explained, "We have collected some of the fish and we have contacted the Centre Pasteur in Yaounde but they say they do not have the technical know-how to do the analysis so they have contacted Paris (France) and we are still waiting to get feedback. The fish is for now frozen so that it can stay as long as possible for the analysis to be done. When we shall send the fish it may take between 2-3 weeks to get the analysis finalized," he noted.

Since the incidence, the Fako administration has been working round the clock to ensure short and long term measures to curb the situation. A high level delegation from the Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development in Yaounde has visited the site and is preparing a final report.