Oil-pipeline risks cry out for action - NGOs

The construction of the Cameroon-Chad pipeline has given rise to environmental, health, social and developmental concerns that need to be addressed before the facility becomes operational, two Cameroonian NGOs reported. The 900-km section of the pipeline that runs through Cameroon, the NGOs on Wednesday said, posed security threats, health risks and environmental hazards, including the reduction of freshwater reserves, destruction of forests, and encroachment on fragile ecosystems, including those of the coastline. Accidental oil spilling threatened traditional fishing, Honoré Ndoumbe Nkotto, national co-coordinator of the Cameroonian Foundation for Women's Rationalised Action on Environment, said in a statement. The Foundation for Environment and Development in Cameroon also said no action had been taken to protect vulnerable people, two years after construction work on the pipeline began. Project officials denied the claims. "As far as rules on hydrocarbon spilling risks are concerned, so much care has been taken," Emmanuel Noubissié Ngankam, who is in charge of the project operations at the World Bank, was quoted as saying by news agencies. The pipeline is part of a US $3.5-billion project to pump oil from Doba in southern Chad to off-shore facilities in Cameroon and is expected to begin production by 2004. It is a joint venture between US oil companies ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, and Malaysia’s Petronas. Chad expects to receive between US $2.5 and $5 billion in direct revenues from royalties, taxes and dividends depending on the price of oil over the oilfield’s 30-year life. US $3.5 billion in economic activity is also expected to be generated by local project spending and employment. Cameroon expects to receive US $500 million in pipeline transit fees, taxes and dividends and another US $400 million in economic activity. The World Bank approved the project in June 2000, despite opposition both in Chad and Cameroon, calling it "an unprecedented framework to transform oil wealth into direct benefits for the poor, the vulnerable and the environment". International environmental NGOs such as Action Alert said it was environmentally dangerous because it would affect forests, land in southern Chad where most of the country’s food is grown, coastal waters and important regional river systems.