Symposium on natural disasters

Addressing environmental issues related to Mount Cameroon and finding ways to tackle other natural disasters that have hit Cameroon in the last 10 years are the main focus of a six-day international symposium that opened on Tuesday in the capital, Yaounde, PANA reported. Mount Cameroon is an active volcano located in the southwest of the country. It erupted twice last year: there were no deaths, but it destroyed 70 hectares of plantation and caused other damage. It is also a constant threat to some 100,000 people living nearby, PANA said. The meeting's agenda includes water-related disasters such as a recent flood that killed 20 people and washed away several houses in the town of Limbe, 250 km west of Yaounde. Cameroon plans to create a national risk observatory that would collect information on disasters and develop an early warning system on natural disasters, PANA reported the state secretary for regional administration, Adamou Modi, as saying at the symposium. In the last 10 years, Cameroon has experienced 75 natural disasters which have cost the state five billion CFA francs (about US $7,000,000), Modi said.