FEATURE - Frustrations Grow in Cameroon over Oil Pipeline
Date: 18-Nov-05
Country: CAMEROON
Author: Tansa Musa
The terminus for a 1,070-km (665-mile) pipeline bringing oil from landlocked Chad to Cameroon, Kribi was full of expectations that wealth would trickle down from the $4 billion venture -- one of Africa's biggest infrastructure projects.
Instead, Kribi's fishermen say a reef was destroyed during the construction of an offshore facility three years ago and this has endangered their livelihoods. Their complaints echo those heard from others living along the Doba pipeline route.
"These people only cared about their pipeline and the money they will make from it, they cared little about us," said Agathe Mbedi, who sells fish at Kribi's market.
"They destroyed the rock that shielded the water in which fish used to breed. They promised to replace it, but have done nothing. Our men are earning less money, our children are out of school and we risk starving."
The World Bank, which funded the venture, helped set up what it calls unprecedented safeguards to manage earnings from the pipeline, which is operated by a US-led consortium and promised revenues of $500 million for Cameroon.
The venture, led by Exxon Mobil Corp., had been viewed by many rights activists as a test case of whether petrodollars can fight poverty in Africa instead of fuelling conflict and corruption.
But criticism has been growing. Local rights campaigners say the new wealth is simply enriching foreign firms and political elites in one of the world's poorest regions.
"PICTURE OF DESPAIR"
Several countries along West Africa's coastline are hoping to find oil and cash in on world demand for alternative sources of crude to supplement the volatile Middle East.
The United States hopes a quarter of its oil imports in a decade will come from West Africa, up from 14 percent now.
But grinding poverty in oil producers like Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea show that petrodollars often do not translate into a better life for local people -- and Kribi's experience shows oil can even complicate existing hard lives.
Oscar Ada points to a 7-metre wide pool in his garden in the village of Ekabita-Mendum near Yaounde.
"At first we didn't have this lake here," he said. "But (the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company) COTCO came here and constructed its pipeline and left behind a mountain of soil that directs rain off into my yard."
He says breeding mosquitoes prevent his family from sleeping at night and the water has damaged his 50 cocoa trees.
Once luscious green, the brown-grey leaves are now withered. Dried or rotten cocoa pods hang from some of them.
The pipeline began pumping oil in 2003. Production was averaging about 180,000 barrels of crude per day by mid-2005, according to the project's Web site.
Cameroonian environmental and rights organisations say they have documented about 400 cases where people have been affected by the project but have not been adequately compensated.
Amnesty International has said the pipeline is side-stepping human rights safeguards for local inhabitants.
Celestine Mbouma's husband's cocoa plantation was damaged when the pipeline was built, cutting production from 20 bags to just three per year. Mbouma, a mother of 12, now fears she will no longer be able to pay for her children to go to school.
"I was very determined to do everything to ensure that my children get a good education ... But ... now, I don't know whether they will have to abandon school ... Please, tell those people to do something for us or we will all die," she said.
In Mbouma's village, a water source that was destroyed during the construction has yet to be replaced. Residents say the water is contaminated and people have fallen ill, while children trek 8 km (5 miles) to get fresh supplies.
"People have paid a hefty price for having the pipeline pass near their homes and fields," said Korinna Horta, a senior environmental economist at the US non governmental organisation Environme