Lom Pangar Dam, Cameroon

While less than 5% of households in Cameroon have access to electricity, the government is intensifying efforts to build the Lom Pangar Dam, which would allow a major expansion of the Alucam aluminum smelter at the expense of residential consumers and local businesses.

The Alucam smelter -- owned by Canadian company, Alcan, and the Government of Cameroon -- already consumes about half of Cameroon’s electricity and is seeking to more than double its production while receiving favorable electricity rates far below what residential users pay. The government intends to use Lom Pangar Dam to regulate seasonal flows of the Sanaga River, allowing the construction of more hydrodams downstream, including the Nachtigal Dam set to be built and operated by Alcan for their expansion.

Cameroon is already 95% dependent on hydropower for its electricity and Lom Pangar would increase the vulnerability of Cameroon’s economy to drought, which could be worsened by climate change. Cameroon's small businesses and residential customers will remain at risk of blackouts and power shortages. Communities living near Lom Pangar would feel new strains on their already limited resources because of fishermen and others arriving in the area, increased hunting and farming in nearby protected forests, and increases in illness and disease. The dam’s reservoir would flood part of the World Bank sponsored Chad–Cameroon Pipeline and the protected Deng Deng Forest Reserve, home to a community of endangered gorillas.

Read a fact sheet and an in-depth field report on the Lom Pangar Dam and the energy sector in Cameroon.

Learn how you can Foil the Aluminum Industry.

LATEST ADDITIONS:

Integrated River Basin Management of the Sanaga River, Cameroon:

IUCN's Role in Lom Pangar Dam

Lom Pangar Dam Fact Sheet

Letter to IUCN Concerning Lom Pangar’s Independent Expert Panel

Transparency in the Dark

CONTACT US:

Terri Hathaway
terri [at] internationalrivers [dot] org
+237 22 02 34 12