Actualités of Thursday, 23 October 2014

Source: Cameroon Tribune

CMR reviews environmental management at industrial port complex

Efforts are still underway in the area of waste management and potable drinking water supply. This was an observation made during a visit by Minepded Tuesday on the site.

Initially, clusters of heterogeneous waste, were buried in the depths of the ground or left in the open air at construction sites at the industrial port complex of Kribi.

Today, evacuation and especially waste sorting efforts are being made on site with the development of a hand picking by some people to seperate the waste into three different groups for household garbage.

The observation was made during the visit to the site by the Minister of the environment, Protection of nature and sustainable development (Minepded), Hele Pierre, last Tuesday at Grand Batanga.

This visit was for the Minister and his team, to ensure smooth running of the environmental and social management (PGES) of the project including the first Plan phase running at 99%.

The realization of such projects are sometimes a source of destruction to the environment, including the aquatic wildlife, among others. Above that, since the beginning of the work, as one of the field engineers pointed out, the Chinese company CHEC in charge of the implementation of the project has shown reluctance to comply with environmental laws in the realization of the construction.

As a result, 'the available water is not drinkable, noted the Minepded. Moreover, the water Pan emits a strong smell. To remedy the poor quality of water, the company is constructing new sources.

Culprits who have been called to order a number of times seem to comply with social and environmental specifications. A matrix of 30 actions adopted to lift the "non-compliance".

Minepded made recommendations to optimize the environmental and social protection through strengthening the measures of hygiene, health and security through the provision of drinking water and the improvement of the sanitary base life of local workers, the strengthening of the personal protective equipment and medical monitoring of workers.

The environmental management process was launched in 2009 by a set of studies including the inventory of forestry potential, analysis of sediments from the area, the assessment of the cumulative effects of future infrastructure, topographic recognition.