Cameroon – Lom Pangar Hydroelectric Project

November 10, 2011

U.S. Position

Cameroon has great hydropower potential and we appreciate that the electricity resulting 

from this project will help many people in the region who are not attached to the grid now, as 

well as address a key structural constraint to the country’s economic growth. The United 

States also appreciates the consultative process that is detailed in the documents. 

While the U.S. strongly supports the AfDB’s role in infrastructure provision, particularly

energy provision, in Africa’s energy-starved areas, in this instance the United States abstains, 

given that the social and environmental analysis was not adequate. 

This is a complicated project on several fronts, and some lessons can hopefully be drawn

from it. The main U.S. concern with the project is that the EIA did not adequately consider 

cumulative and associated impacts. The major direct impacts of the dam and their mitigation 

in the stretch below the dam—a stretch that also traverses the Deng Deng reserve -- are 

poorly assessed, and a detailed assessment of impacts in this zone has not been provided. 

The associated and cumulative watershed impacts contain little detail on the impacts of the 

related investments downstream. In the absence of an agreed cost recovery plan, the United 

States believes that one of the downstream projects – the Nachtigal dam -- is an "associated" 

facility because it requires the existence of the dam. 

The World Bank is revising the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) to 

address some of these analytical gaps, and the United States has asked that the revised 

document include a discussion of the Nachtigal dam in their associated and cumulative 

impacts assessment. 

The United States is disappointed that AfDB staff focused their attention on the parts of the 

project that they are financing, rather than the overall project. Projects such as this one 

highlight the importance of donor coordination. The United States has stressed to staff 

during recent weeks our concern that because the World Bank Board consideration will be so 

much later, the difference in timing would mean that the social and environmental work 

funded by the World Bank would not be made available in time for us to be able to regard 

this proposal favorably. The United States appreciates the AfDB’s desire to complete its 

work on time and to be responsive to Cameroon’s needs, but in so doing, the AfDB went 

forward without being fully informed on the environmental and social ramifications that the 

World Bank is still formulating. A greater effort at coordination between the two MDBs 

would have helped address these questions and provided greater confidence that the social 

and environmental issues for the entire project are being adequately addressed.

It is important to note that the Deng Deng National Forest, which abuts the project area, will 

become more accessible to poaching and logging. The area is home to many protected 

species and illegal logging has been an issue in the area. Determining whether the mitigating 

measures were adequate in this instance to prevent unwanted environmental degradation was 

important and should have been included as part of the AfDB ESIA and ESMP, or at least 

cross-referenced. 
The United States is concerned that not enough attention was paid in this instance to these 

substantial issues. This may be a result of lack of staffing or may be result of lack of 

adequate risk analysis early in project design. The AfDB should not be engaging on a project 

of this complexity without an adequate safeguard staff that can root out these problems early 

and alert task managers of potential issues and risks. In the context of the energy strategy, 

the United States notes the need for adequate safeguard staff if the Bank is to reach the types 

of ambitious energy targets described while assuring requisite actions are taken to guard the 

integrity of Africa’s environmental resources.

Lastly, the United States notes the World Bank is still working with the Cameroon 

government on the new electricity law and ensuring the funding of the environmental 

mitigation plan. As both of these issues are important to the success of the overall project, 

the United States hopes the authorities will address them expeditiously.