Scientists Tame Cameroon Killer Lake

Scientists Tame Cameroon Killer Lake

By Ntaryike Divine Jr.

Douala, Cameroon

3 March 2011

On a quiet August night in 1986, Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon coughed up lethal clouds of carbon dioxide, choking over 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in adjacent villages.  Twenty five years later, scientists claim they have successfully tamed the killer lake through a degassing process in which accruing carbon dioxide is siphoned off its bottom water layers.

Like a naturally beautiful woman without makeup, Lake Nyos, perched on the flank of an extinct volcano in Cameroon's remote northwest hardly leaves sightseers indifferent.  Now, with three manmade fountains gracing its blue surface, the generally tranquil water body appears even more elegant.

But all that splendor constitutes a dangerous masquerade.  Calamity lurks beneath the crater lake located along an area of volcanic activity stretching southwest to Mt Cameroon. 

The lake first captured the attention of the world on August 21, 1986, when it abruptly discharged large clouds of carbon dioxide which asphyxiated over 1,700 people and thousands of livestock in nearby villages. The mass suffocation came two years after 37 people were killed in similar circumstances at Lake Monoun, sixty miles to the southeast.

Scientists rushed to the scene from across the world.  They agreed that degassing the lake by installing pipes to suck up gas-filled water from its bottom layers and allowing the carbon dioxide leak out in safe quantities atop was the best bet in avoiding a recurrence.

The fountains are actually the visible parts of those vent tubes, the last of which was vertically mounted in the 200-meter-deep lake in March, ending a venture embarked upon in 2001 and considerably snail-paced by sluggish funding.

Scientists say the suction pipes will pump out some 200 million cubic meters of carbon dioxide trapped in the lake’s bottom layers over the next two years.  Michael Halbwachs, currently heads the French gas-extraction company DATA Environnement, He says the process will eradicate all lingering dangers of another toxic gas explosion.

“The system is self-powered and will permanently pump up water heavily saturated with CO2 from the lake bottom.  As the water rises, its pressure drops implying that higher pressures at the bottom layers will continue to drive the process.  Over long periods, carbon dioxide has been seeping into the bottom layers from a magma [or molten rock] chamber beneath.  Progressively, the water becomes supersaturated with CO2, requiring a landslide, an earthquake, heavy rainfall or rising temperatures to detonate an explosion in which large amounts of CO₂ bubble upwards and burst out through the lake surface,” he explains.

CO₂ is heavier than air, and so once emitted, it sinks to the ground, displacing breathable air upwards. As a result, life forms breathing oxygen for survival are suffocated.  Geologists call the phenomenon limnic eruption.  They say before a lake is saturated, it behaves like an un-opened carbonated soft drink.

  

In both cases, the CO₂ dissolves much more readily at higher pressure. That’s why bubbles in a can of soda for example, only form after the drink is opened, releasing the pressure and forcing bubbles of CO2 out of the solution.

To date, the phenomenon has been observed only twice in Cameroon.   However, a third lake, the Kivu on the DR Congo and Rwanda border, is known to contain even greater amounts of dissolved CO_2.   It is 2,000 times larger than Lake Nyos, with over two million people living along its shores.  Scientists say fortunately, it has not attained the required level of CO2 saturation to provoke an eruption.   Ironically, it is a potential source of wealth, holding vast stocks of methane.  Halbwachs is at work there, fine-tuning several commercial projects to extract the gas and turn it into useful energy.

Lake Nyos lacks such endowments, but remains a cherished place despite the sad memories.  Long before the completion of the degassing project, the few nostalgic survivors of the 1986 disaster had begun resettling their once-abandoned ancestral lands.  The successful conclusion of the degassing venture plus security guarantees including the erection of an alarm system at the lake gateway is attracting more people including mostly farmers and cattle grazers.

However, many complain that half a century later, the persisting remoteness of the increasingly tourist destination is deterring potential investors. The returnees complain they lack roads, hospitals and other basic social amenities.  They are demanding more government assistance.

Elsewhere, another problem remains unresolved.  The lake waters are held in place by a natural dam of volcanic rock. Geologists fear it could collapse in the near future from erosion.  If it gives way, some 50 million cubic meters of water will sweep downhill, wiping out human settlements inhabited by some 10,000 people both in Cameroon and across the border in Nigeria. 

The government has announced plans to artificially reinforce the lake wall with concrete, as well as permanently drain off some of the lake waters to trim down pressure on the wall.  It however remains to be seen when the promises will hop from the drawing boards to reality

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Cameroon Resorts To IBM To Strangle Corruption

Cameroon Resorts To IBM To Strangle Corruption

By Ntaryike Divine Jr. in Douala

11/04/ 2011

Cameroon's Ministry of Finance has resorted to IBM’s mainframe and data storage technologies to better master the country’s corruption-soaked civil servants’ payroll processes.  A 31 March news release from IBM’s Sub-Saharan Africa Growth Markets Unit says the z10 Business Class Mainframe will provide the ministry with a 200 percent increase in performance, while scaling down operating costs by 30 percent.

“The modernization of Cameroon’s central IT systems is an important part of the national agenda of the country,” said Laurent Onguene, Director of the Cameroon National Center for IT Development, CENADI, at the Ministry of Finance; which signed the deal with IBM.  The new system is expected to go operational by the end of April.  Officials at IBM and the Cameroon government are not revealing the overall cost of the equipment, but IT experts estimate the country is paying between US$100,000 and US$150,000.

Cameroon's acquisition of the devise coincides with an ongoing government recruitment of 25,000 new workers in a country with unemployment rates kissing 70 percent.  Current statistics indicate the country counts over 200,000 civil servants, but the government lacks mastery of exact numbers on its payroll.

Last year, Finance Minister Essimi Menye announced the unmasking of 15,000 fake government workers unlawfully milking state coffers.  In most cases, staff lied about their rank; delayed retirement or were collecting salaries for deceased workers.  In February, the country’s National Anti-corruption Commission revealed that between 1998 and 2004, corruption cost the state US$3.75million.

Elsewhere, Transparency International says Cameroon is perceived as one of the most corrupt countries in the world having topped global corruption charts for two consecutive years beginning 2000.

The advent of the IBM z10 Business Class Mainframe thus heralds bad news for corruption racket masterminds especially at the Ministry of Finance, ranked Cameroon's corruption bedrock by local watchdogs.  It will help enforce security of the payroll system, improve the efficiency of processes such as generating pay slips, drive messaging applications based on IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino software and also increase connectivity between different government departments.

“For  the  Cameroon  Ministry  of  Finance  it was important to implement a platform  based  on  open  source  software.  IBM System z running on Linux provides the Ministry with an open platform to help standardize the use of ICT and increase levels of connectivity between government departments” said Bernard Beyokol, General Director of CFAO Technologies, an IBM partner in Cameroon.

Onguene says the system will act as a central processing system to manage massive amounts of payroll transactions.  Many companies and organizations are turning to the mainframe to handle these kinds of demands while also creating efficiencies in energy consumption and operating costs.  As a small and compact system, the mainframe also has advantages over sprawling distributed server farms which some organizations implemented in recent years.

 “IBM  mainframe  is  a  proven  technology  that  provides  the  levels  of reliability, security and performance needed for government systems,” Laurent Onguene added.

Last month, Senegal announced it was installing the IBM mainframe to modernize its import and export processes.  IBM officials say Cameroon and Senegal are queuing up behind a growing number of organizations and companies in growth markets opting for IBM mainframe such as the First National Bank of Namibia, Comepay in Russia, Kazakh Rail, HeiTech Padu in Malaysia, China Internet Network Information Center, Korea's BC Card and Korea's Dongbu Insurance.

“Not only does the mainframe provide a secure and powerful IT platform, but it also helps companies and organizations respond to rapid growth in mobile computing and pave the way for smart computing systems,” said Taiwo Otiti, Country General Manager, IBM West Africa.

 

Cameroonian Woman Bags L’Oreal-UNESCO Distinction

Cameroonian Woman Bags L’Oreal-UNESCO Distinction

By Ntaryike Divine Jr. in Douala

31 March 2011

It requires nothing more than a casual probe to conclude that in Cameroon, women scientists number only about a handful in comparison to their male counterparts.  Their participation in hands-on science domains is generally obstructed via discriminatory selection processes, as well as an assortment of socio-traditional penchants suppressing their interest in the sciences from tender ages.

And so predictably, very few Cameroonian women succeed in bulldozing the barriers to access the science halls of fame.  Basically the bulk of those who dare wind up as classroom science teachers.  Observers however note a gradual trend shift with an emerging generation of women making tangible forays in the scientific research arena.

One of them is Justine Germo Nzweundji.  The 33-year-old doctoral student in plant biology at the University of Yaounde, and senior technician at the Institute of Medical Research and Study of Medicinal Plants currently basks in fame from long years of unwavering effort.  She is one of 15 women researchers [three from each continent,] awarded this year’s UNESCO- L’Oréal International Fellowships for Women in Science.

The recognition bagged last 2 March in Paris comes with a US$40,000 two-year funding parcel to enable her pursue research even beyond Cameroon. Justine’s work is hinged around the sustainable exploitation of the African cherry [Prunus aricana].  The bark of the wildly-growing tree common in Sub-Saharan Africa’s mountainous regions is used in the treatment of Benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH which is an enlargement of the prostrate generally affecting men aged over 50.

Environmentalists warn the tree may soon go extinct from overexploitation.  Major exporters of bark from which an extract is derived for BPH treatment include Cameroon, Madagascar, Equatorial Guinea, and Kenya.  Production of the extract stood at 6370-7225 kg per year in 2000.  PLANTECAM, previously the largest bark exporter in Africa has since closed its extraction factory in Cameroon, hinting that harvests were no longer sustainable.

And that is where Justine comes in.  Her research is developing techniques to propagate large quantities of disease-free clones of genetically uniform plant material that can be made available for commercial exploitation.  Her target is to obtain the best results for the conservation and mass distribution of plant embryos containing the highest concentration of the active components sought by the pharmaceutical industry.  She says these components could be produced in vitro as an alternative to harvesting the tree bark.

Justine intends on the back of success, to share her knowledge with local farmers, non-governmental organizations and investors both in Cameroon and beyond. She notes that it is very difficult to get the plant seeds to germinate and at the current harvesting rate, the existence of several species relying on the African cherry for survival is in doubt.  Justine is confident her work will not only check eroding biodiversity, but will also reduce poverty in rural areas.

Meantime, five other outstanding women, one from each continent won the 2011 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards.  They were picked by a jury led by Prof Ahmed Zewail [1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry] and each received US $100,000.  Flagged off by the French cosmetics company L’Oreal and UNESCO in 1998, the awards were in the 13^th edition this year and globally aim at celebrating women scientists from around the world who personify the promise of a better world. Over a thousand excelling women scientists have been recognized and supported in their work since the launch of the awards.

 

    

Cameroon Supreme Court Handed Exclusive Right To Publish Election Results

The widely debated changes is considered a weakening of the country’s electoral commission while elsewhere, candidates aspiring for the post of president are required to pay deposits of US$10,000 up from US$3,000

Ntaryike Divine Jr. in Douala, Cameroon

11/04/2011

Parliament in Cameroon has adopted a series of electoral reforms including a new law according the country’s Supreme Court, exclusive rights to proclaim future election results.  The court, which is the country’s highest, sits in for the yet-to-be established Constitutional Council.

The decision, reached at the end of an extraordinary session of the National Assembly that spanned 6 to 9 April implies that the elections management body, Elections Cameroon or ELECAM has been stripped of the right to publish even provisionary election results in the Central African nation.

The decision comes ahead of a planned presidential election this year in which 29-year-serving Paul Biya [one of Africa's longest-serving leaders] is expected to seek re-election. He amended the constitution in 2008 to eliminate term limits.  His ruling CPDM [Cameroon Peoples’ Democratic Movement, CPDM] holds an overwhelming majority at the 180-member National Assembly.

The government-proposed electoral reforms come in the wake of the political stalemate in the Ivory Coast where election results proclaimed by the independent electoral commission were overturned by the constitutional council to declare incumbent Laurent Gbagbo winner.

 “It’s been our general concern considering what’s happening in other countries and I think the President of the Republic was timely on this issue, considering the fact that Cameroonians have been complaining.  We think that the answer has come,” Francis Enwe, a CPDM parliamentarian said after the adoption of the draft law Saturday.

But the reforms have sparked widespread debate among especially opposition-inclined Cameroonians residing both within and without the country.  Many argue the Supreme Court, whose members are appointed by the President of the Republic, lacks independence and would not be fair, while others point to the fact that the electoral commission has been significantly enfeebled.

Jean Jacques Ekindi is the lone Member of Parliament from the MP [Progressive Movement], a breakaway party from the ruling CPDM.  “The deal is bad for Cameroon.  While ELECAM is claiming to be responsible for elections, it is in fact not responsible for anything.  I think that this law will bring a lot of problems.  We’re going backwards because if elections are clear and fair, why should ELECAM not publish the results,” he queried Sunday.

ELECAM was created via a presidential decree in December 2006 and its 12-member electoral council named in 2008.  But the neutrality of the board members triggered prevalent discontent in the opposition as eleven of them came from Biya’s ruling party. Biya’s opponents cried foul with the leading opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF, threatening a boycott of any election organized by ELECAM until its composition was overhauled.

Now, Parliament has adopted a law to increase its board membership to 18 and the six incoming members are due appointment by the President of the Republic.  But the opposition has warned that not numbers, but the political nonalignment of the board members matters.  “We have a lot of questions about the 18 members that are going to be appointed.  Are they going to appoint 18 new members or just add six more to the 12 who come from the CPDM?  Whatever the case, we insist that neutrality and the impartiality of the new members be respected which means that before their appointment, they should have been known to be neutral,” Hon Simon Chinda of the SDF cautioned.

Elsewhere, Parliament also raised the amount required as deposit from presidential aspirants from US$3,000 [FCFA 1.5 million] to US$10,000 [FCFA 5 million].  The decision is seen by analysts as a way of injecting greater credibility regarding candidates vying for the post of president in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community’s largest economy.  This year’s presidential election has already attracted candidatures from a wide range of Cameroonians of all shades.

Dr Agbor Ambang is a political analyst in the capital Yaounde and author of the book; “Democracy and Power Alternation in Africa.” He says increasing the deposit for candidates is a considerable milestone in the evolution of Cameroon's democracy.  “I don’t think that 5 million francs should stop any serious-minded candidate.  Any candidate who is unable to raise 5 million francs lacks seriousness.  It’s a welcome solution because 1.5 million francs created room for just any adventurers to vie as candidates,” he concluded.

Meantime, some members of the opposition argue that the reforms fail to address a number of lingering yet very pertinent issues.  This year’s presidential poll is constitutionally slated for October and ELECAM began registering voters nine months ago.  Latest statistics show that less than a million voters have been enrolled on voter lists nationwide to add to five million from the last legislative elections in 2007.  Suspicion among Cameroonians the elections will not be fair and transparent have significantly contributed to the conspicuous voter apathy.

Observers suggest the government should yield to opposition demands and embrace two-round elections, an idea that has been summarily dismissed by the CPDM-dominated parliament over the years.  Increasingly, there are growing calls for political parties and the civil society to be included on the enlarged ELECAM board as a means of better accommodating the country’s sociopolitical dispensations, the use of biometrics in the electoral process, vote-counting and publication at the level of polling stations and the exclusion of the country’s Ministry of Territorial Administration [Interior] in the election process.    

Douala Port Access Tightened For Truckers

Douala Port Access Tightened For Truckers

By Ntaryike Divine Jr. in Douala

Cargo trucks and other merchandise haulers entering the Douala seaport are coming under more stringent controls since the start of April 2011.  The meticulous filtration follows a decision by the port administrators to reinforce a 1985 law policing the technical and administrative conditions of vehicles accessing the country’s largest maritime shipping facility.

Since 2 April, the port’s two main gateways are manned by mixed squads of police, gendarmes, hired guards and ports control supervisors.  Their task is to meticulously verify that vehicles entering the port comply with regulations which entail having tires in excellent condition, fire extinguishers, faultless lighting systems, container locks, as well as indisputable admission authorizations.

Officials enacting the resurrected controls say soaring accidents and lackadaisical enforcement of the ISPS [International Ship and Port Security] code in recent years imply that the port, which handles over 90 percent of Cameroon's external trade, faces increasing risks of being blacklisted.  “That would mean that shippers would be advised to avoid the Douala port because of security lapses, and you can imagine how much that will cost the economy,” Nembot Jean Christophe, representing the Douala Port Commander told reporters during an acquaintance field trip Friday.

Estimates show that over 200 cargo trucks access the port daily [at it south gate].  Before the decision to reinforce the regulations, a sizeable fraction of that number usually ended up stranded within the port premises for lack of clearance documents.  According to Ndoumbe Ngosso, a supervisor, traffic fluidity was severely hampered, provoking avoidable accidents, falling containers and uncalled-for delays.  “But since the start of the month, about 97 percent of incoming vehicles are complying with the measures,” He said. 

Indirectly, that implies 3 percent of trucks entering the port lack the right to do so – a clear hint of lingering corruption.  “That’s a tricky question.  But we are not concentrating our efforts on combating corruption which may be hard to prove.  We are rather dissuading corruption by inflict heavy sanctions on defaulters,” Ngosso explained.  Truck drivers caught without requisite authorizations within the port are fined anything from FCFA 50.000 – 100.000 and risk jail terms that can span 5 months to 10 years and even more.  Those involved in accidents that wreck installations are obliged to repair the damages as well as pay a fine.

Meantime, the port authority is installing a video surveillance system to eventually take over the manual control.  In fact, a team of the port supervisors left the country for the US at the weekend to gain hands-on experience in enforcing security.

Transport and merchandise transit unionists are welcoming the controls with reservations.  “For the moment, we don’t have problems with the controls.  All we are insisting on is that the law be obligatory for everybody.  We held several meetings with Mr Dayas Mounoume, [the general manager of the Ports Authority of Douala] and we told him flatly that things will begin to go wrong when high-profile individuals in the government begin to call to have their trucks without the required papers go into the port,” a transport sector trade unionists, opting for anonymity warned.

Why Lapiro Was Smuggled Out Of Newbell

Why Lapiro Was Smuggled Out Of Newbell

By Ntaryike Divine Jr. in Douala

Hardnosed Cameroonian singer, Lambo Sandjo Pierre Roger aka Lapiro De Mbanga regained his liberty Friday 8 April, one day prior to the set expiration of his three-year confinement at the brimful Newbell Central Prison in Douala.   Across city, observers almost unanimously agree the stealthy and short-notice sneaking out of the blunt government critic by officials of the penitentiary facility was far from naïve.

In the last few weeks, rights defenders had marshaled hundreds and possibly thousands of well-wishers to congregate at the prison precincts on 9 April and serve Lapiro a hilarious “welcome.”  But the prison superintendent, Dieudonne Engonga Mintsang spoiled the party.  Flanked by two aides, he smuggled out Lapiro and escorted him to his Mbanga residence just after midday Friday.

Sources told The Post Saturday the decision, hinged on security concerns, was instructed by local administrative officials petrified by prospects of overspills of anti-government adrenaline.  “I was not freed, but sacked from prison and escorted to my home in Mbanga by the prison registrar himself,” Lapiro joked on the phone hours later. 

Lapiro was arrested and detained on 9 April 2008 over charges of inflaming the deadly nationwide insurrection over soaring living costs [in Mbanga].  Government figures put the death toll at 40, but human rights watchdogs said some 140 people were killed mostly by anti-riot troops.  Lapiro was accused of fanning the upheaval as well as complicity in looting and property wreckage among others.  All through the widely monitored and severally adjourned trial, the ace Makossa singer claimed his innocence.

Despite a chorus of disapproval by rights defenders within and beyond the country intimating the case was politically-motivated, alongside incongruous witness accounts; the Moungo High Court in Nkongsamba on 28 September the same year, slammed him a three-year-term plus a fine of FCFA 280 million.  It is widely believed the jail term was an attempt to shut up the artist who at the time, denounced a constitutional amendment that eliminated presidential term limits in Cameroon in a popular song titled “Constipated Constitution” [or Consitution Constipée in French].

Lapiro’s release coincides with this year’s planned presidential poll and just-concluded electoral reforms at the National Assembly.  He says rather than succumb to intimidation; he is ready more than ever before to spit more fire against the 29-year-serving Biya regime.  “I’m not yet free.  It’s not over yet.  I believe I’m still going back to prison because now, what I will say, what I will sing will be very tough.  God knows I will be more bitter than ever,” he declared after the release.  He has announced plans to publish a book that will query whether or not he is a victim of politics and a programmed extermination.

Meantime, Freemuse, a Denmark-based international organization promoting freedom of expression for musicians has raised concerns over Lapiro’s post-incarceration security.  “We’ve worked for his release for almost three years in collaboration with many good colleagues and sister organizations. We will continue to observe closely what happens to Lapiro. We know that he may still face security problems and we hope that we will be able to retain his career as soon as possible,” Marie Korpe, Freemuse Executive Director, announced Friday.

Other international music and writers’ watchdogs like Freedom Now, International Pen, Mondomix and Vigier Guitars say they are all ears on the ground too.  While in prison, Lapiro was awarded the Dutch non-governmental-organization’s Oxfam Novib/en Award in 2008 and then the FCFA-12.5-million Freedom to Create Prize from Freemuse in 2009.