Along with its economic presence, China has rapidly expanded its environmental footprint in Africa. An important objective of China's Africa strategy is to extract natural resources which have so far not been accessible. Such resources are often located in fragile ecosystems and countries plagued by corruption and conflict. As a long-term partner in Africa's development, China has an interest in addressing the environmental impacts of its projects. The Chinese government has issued guidelines on the impacts of overseas investments, but will need to strengthen them further.

China's Environmental Footprint in Africa examines China's Africa strategy, and analyzes similarities and differences with the Western approach.

A position paper developed by NGOs and other stakeholders for the International Conference on Renewable Energy in Africa, 16-18 April 2008, Dakar, Senegal

Coordinated by Community Research and Development Centre, Nigeria

Report Summary

Executive summary

A confusing maze of new funds, programs, and strategies (both within Africa and from abroad) is now prioritizing large dam development as a solution to Africa's pressing needs for improved supplies of energy and water. Potentially huge amounts of money could be funnelled into African large dam projects in coming years, with the potential to

A case study for Earthlife Africa eThekwini and Friends of the Earth

Sanaga River, Cameroon

Integrated River Basin Management of the Sanaga River, Cameroon: Benefits and challenges of decentralised water management

This paper was written as final assignment for
the course ‘Integrated River Basin Management’ at the UNESCO Institute of
Hydraulic Engineering, Delft, The Netherlands.

1. THE SANAGA RIVER BASIN
The Sanaga River is the largest river in Cameroon and its basin covers almost a fourth of the country. It flows for 918 km from its source on the Adamawa Plateau to the mouth at the Atlantic Ocean near Douala nd covers a drainage basin of about 140,000 km2. The average flow of the river is 2072 m3/sec with a minimum flow of 473 m3/sec in March and a maximum from August to November of 5700 m3/sec. The river flows through 6 of the 10 provinces of Cameroon: Adamawa, North-West, West, East, Central and Littoral Provinces. Two hydropower plants have been installed on the Sanaga which produce some 95% of all electricity consumed in Cameroon.

As part of its going-out strategy, China is rapidly expanding its economic cooperation with Africa. China Exim Bank plays an important role in this cooperation. The policy bank is financing more than 250 projects in Africa, primarily in the infrastructure sector.

Thanks to an anonymous source, new data on Lake Victoria and its outflow management has become available since the original report. The data consists of observed daily lake levels, associated agreed curve discharges and actual Nalubaale and Kiira Dam releases for September 2004 to the beginning of March 2006, as reported by Eskom Uganda Ltd.

Dams Planned for African Rivers

This information is compiled by International Rivers’s Africa