As floods and pollution wreak havoc on a key industry, prompting visitors to stay away, fishermen and businesses in Limbe fear not only the sea but also the future. PAMACC's Elias Ntungwe Ngalame reports
LIMBE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Sitting in front of his plank house in Batoke Limbe, a coastal village in Cameroon’s South-west region, Ngeme John , 45 arranges his boat and net in readiness for the day’s early morning catch.
But the planned expedition won’t take place on the fishing spot around his village, as it used to. Just 2km away, the formerly coastal fresh air now smells of gasoline and petroleum spills.
The silence of the surrounding mangrove forest is broken by the honking and rumbling of patrol tankers and heavy duty trucks.
He stares vacantly at the rolling sea, struggling to hold back the tears in the eyes in desperation.
"I have lived here for over 25 years, but never experienced this type of polluted environment before ," says John, a fisher man in Batoke some 5 KM away from Mile six a renowned tourist beach in Limbe.
Marine pollution along the coastal town of Limbe stretching through Douala in Cameroon has continued to surge in recent years .
As a result, John now must venture about 30km away from home to fish.
He and the entire fishing community along the coast complain their livelihood have been destroyed by the disaster. Environmentalists are sounding the death knell too.
“This petroleum exploitation project has made life perilous for us,” John said . “The polluted waters have scared all the fish. We are obliged to go fishing far away, where we can find something to eat and earn some income to send our children to school ,”he explained.
The Cameroon government says it is touting oil resource exploitation in the shores of Limbe as part of the country’s ambitious plans towards an emerging economy by 2035.
The country’s lone National Oil Refinery, known by its French Acronym as SONARA, in 2014 invested FCFA 620 billion to facilitate the refining of locally produced crude oil ,according to the ministry of mines and energy. The project now permits the company to refine 100 percent of crude oil produced in Cameroon up from just 10% before 2014.
The government says the project has scaled up production capacity from 2,100,000 tons to 3,500,000 tons.
“The oil refining project has stepped up petroleum production in the country »,said Gaston Eloundou, Minister of water and Energy resources.
Environment expert say the project is key driver to maritime pollution with accidental crude oil leakage from drilling ,oil transporting ships and ruptured pipelines.
According Bio-resource Centre, an NGO on environment in Cameroon – the Limbe coastal city and surrounding villages is slowly swallowed by repeated floods and water pollution exposing the population to multiple environmental hazards. The Mile Six Beach is regularly covered with spilled oil and the black volcanic sand has been decolorised to brown.
« In some parts of flooded area, only the tops of houses and trees are seen emerging from the water , » says Augustine Njamnshi , CEO of Bio-resource centre. He blamed the persistent floods on the claring of mangrove forest along the shores.
« Mangrove forests along the coast are crucial to protecting the shoreline and mitigating damage from storms and high seas, » says Samuel Nguiffo of the Centre for Environment and Development in Cameroon, an NGO that deals with forest and land issues.
The protection of marine ecosystems and the maritime environment is important not only for aquatic life but also the health of residents in coastal communities, health officials say.
« Air and water pollution bring respiratory, heart, eyesight, skin diseases, leading to death, » says Dr Joyce Ebenson of the Buea district hospital.
But the company has dismissed claims of sea water pollution, saying it soil drilling are in compliance with the law and environmental norms
“These allegations are simply perpetrated by some of our detractors,” said Blascius Ngome, the public relations director of the company.
The company however admitted pollution from gas emissions in the oil refining process but noted this is sufficiently carried to acceptable higher levels in the atmosphere.
In an earlier press statement , the general manager of the company, Ibrahim Talba Mallah, said the company’s expansion efforts is also geared at addressing a “dire humanitarian need in the immediate environment”, easing local unemployment and also supporting the local council’s fight against climate disasters.
Home to some 6 million people, Limbe and Douala, two Cameroon’s biggest coastal cities have in recent years suffered from deadly floods and related water borne epidemics.
"We are having persistent floods in these coastal areas making business really difficult, »said the government delegate to the Limbe city council Andrew Motanga.
« Last year the floods were so heavy that many families, mostly children and mothers who found refuge on rooftops, were rescued from the deluge by the army’s fire fighting brigade,” he explained.
Officials of the Cameroon National Red Cross say natural disasters in the Southwest region and Limbe in particular has increased in the past 10years.
« Climate change is already wrecking havoc and oil spills only come to aggravate matters, » said Sophia Namondo of the Cameroon Red Cross, Limbe chapter.
Business and tourism down
Local Council authorities say the exquisite sandy beach flanked by greeneries of mangrove forest has gradually disappeared.
« The ecological attraction and volcanic sand believed to possess magic powers from Mount Fako is increasingly disappearing. Our visitors for picnicking, sunbath and and consumers of fresh fish are no longer coming,’ » said Andrew.
« The fishes, the fishermen and tourists are going away, » he said, shaking his head in apparent frustration.
Statistics from Limbe’s city council show that tourist visits to the region in 2017dropped by more than 60% compared with three years before.
For Keneth Doh a bar restaurant owner in Ngeme village and other vendors, tourist guides, the shrinking and stinking coast is a complete disaster to their livelihoods.
"The decline in the number of customers in our restaurants is affecting our business , » said Keneth.
Mary Dione, owner of a roasted fish and seafood restaurant, estimates her business is down by 50 percent due to the disappearance of customers at the beach.
"When customers come and feel very uncomfortable with the gasoline stench, they go somewhere else," Mary said.
« I have been doing this business here for over 25 years. My life and that of my family is here, where do I go from here, »she wonders.
SOLUTION
Local Council authorities say they are carrying out weekly cleaning and have resumed tree planting along the coast. The council is looking to raise funds to do more beach cleaning work in hopes of making the area attractive again, Andrew Mutanga said.
The first step to protecting the shore line from extreme weather could be through major reforestation efforts, experts say.
“A tree-planting project by the local council with support from the government is necessary along the entire coastline,” Samuel Nguiffo says.
« When local councils are empowered they can better combat the effects of climate change and pollution, »he adds.
GULU, Uganda (PAMACC News) - Massive animal translocation is taking place in Northern Uganda as hundreds of nomadic pastoralists comply with a presidential decree evicting them from the region.
On October 20th last year, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni directed the ministry of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries to evict the nomads from northern Uganda for among others interfering with food security of the people of northern Uganda. The President also wrote that the nomads threaten the peace of the north and the economy by practicing obsolete farming method. He tasked the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal industry and fisheries to introduce the nomads to sedentary forms of agriculture, paddocking and coffee growing.
The presidential decree followed repeated calls for eviction by host communities who accused the nomads of grazing their livestock in their subsistence farms after failing to fence off their hired pieces of land. Other accusations include sexual harassment of women, engaging in illegal charcoal business, theft of animals and illegal possession of firearms as well as land grabbing amongst others.
At least twenty trucks laden with cows belonging to the Balaalo leave the region for Central and South Western Uganda where the pastoralists initially lived with their animals since the ministry of agriculture started implementing the decree on March 22nd. The decree affects more than 40,000 herds of cattle in the hands of more than 30 groups of nomads estimated to number some 15,000 people.
Edward Kamgaene, a pastoralist herding 200 cows in a rented area of Amuru district says government is not being fair to them by asking them to leave the north of the country within just few days.
“Government has been shifting the goal post all along. Initially we were told to fence our grazing land and stay. But today, we are being told to process movement permits, vaccinate our animals and leave. This is totally a different thing we were told to do earlier. How can this possible within a short time we have been given?” Kamagaene said with anger in his face.
Kamgaene says his livelihoods depend on pastoralism in which he fattens animals before selling them to abattoirs in Capital Kampala. He is worried that he will not be able to fend for his family without practicing pastoralism.
Kamagaene is one of the thousands of nomads who fled acute shortage of pastures and water in 2016 from South Western Uganda migrating up north to fatten his livestock in vast open savannah grassland inhabited by the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups. He says he is stuck with his livestock after learning that his home district is under quarantine due to Foot and Mouth disease.
“I have 100 cows in Nwoya district which I should move to Kyankwanzi district via the districts of Nakasongola and Nakaseke and yet these districts are under quarantine for Foot and Mouth disease. How can I go to these districts to pick movement permits without infecting my animals? How can I take my animals where there is a running quarantine?” Festus Shaka Mutabazi, a pastoralist from Nwoya district stated furiously.
Fred Munyeragwe borrowed a loan of 70 Million shillings for establishing his livestock project. He fattens his animal before selling them for money. He is so worried that he will lose his business alongside the land in Kiboga district he used as security to secure a bank loan if evicted from Northern Uganda.
“The government wants to make us poor. You tell us to work and feed our families. Again you come to disrupt our livelihoods. The pasture back in my home district is still dry and we need an average of two months if we are to relocate back. We don’t need to be pushed as if we are at war with the local community. We are not. Tell those government leaders to give us two more months to prepare ourselves and we move to where we are coming from” he pleaded with government.
Majority of the pastoralists, locally known as the Balaalo, come from the Ankole Cattle Keepers of South Western Uganda. According to President Museveni, some of them were expelled from Tanzania and Rwanda for practicing nomadism.
They started migrating with their animals on trucks in the dead of night without proper animal movement permits from their districts in 2009 to fatten their livestock on leased pieces of land in the north where vast uncultivated land, abundant fresh water streams and adequate green nutritious pasture exist. By 2016, their numbers had increased to more than 25,000 pastoralists with more than 40,000 herds of cattle.
Speaking with the nomads in Gulu (the Northern Uganda region’s biggest business hub) one week ahead of the eviction deadline, Vincent Ssempijja, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries said government would like to end nomadism in Uganda due to increase in human population. He warned that government will not hesitate to use force against the pastoralists who would not comply with the presidential directive to leave the region.
Ssempijja says “there is looming insecurity between the pastoralists and other people who do not want peace. We have decided here that we abide by the directive of the president to get the nomads out of this area. So we are giving it up to March 22 and everybody should have moved the cows from the northern part of this country”.
The eviction delayed three consecutive times to allow the pastoralists vaccinate their livestock against Foot and Mouth disease. The agriculture minister says the vaccination exercise suffered multiple delays due to shortage of vaccine.
“Initially, we could not vaccinate all the livestock we projected after we received only half of the consignment of vaccines we ordered for. Fortunately, the other half has reached the country and we are hopeful that it will be adequate to vaccinate all the remaining animals within the shortest possible time. In every fairness, everybody must accept to stop nomadism. It has caused a lot of problems in South Western Uganda. Animal diseases are so rampant” he stated one week to the commencement of the evictio.
In Gulu district, some 1,000 out of estimated 5,000 cows were vaccinated while in Amuru district, only 5,000 out of estimated 14,000 animals got vaccinated.
Patrick Okello Oryema, the Nwoya district chairperson where the nomads first settled says on average, seven large Lorries laden with cattle belonging to the pastoralists continue to leave his district daily for central and South Western Uganda.
Dr. Charles Obalim, Gulu district veterinary officer says many of the Balaalo shunned the vaccination programme saying government wants to harm their livestock.
“We initially targeted cattle belonging to the Balaalo pastoralists without those of their host communities. This was not well received by the pastoralists but we are telling them that cattle belonging to host communities were just recently vaccinated against foot and mouth disease. And I would like to reiterate that the vaccines are completely safe”
GULU, Uganda (PAMACC News) - Massive animal translocation is taking place in Northern Uganda as hundreds of nomadic pastoralists comply with a presidential decree evicting them from the region.
On October 20th last year, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni directed the ministry of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries to evict the nomads from northern Uganda for among others interfering with food security of the people of northern Uganda. The President also wrote that the nomads threaten the peace of the north and the economy by practicing obsolete farming method. He tasked the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal industry and fisheries to introduce the nomads to sedentary forms of agriculture, paddocking and coffee growing.
The presidential decree followed repeated calls for eviction by host communities who accused the nomads of grazing their livestock in their subsistence farms after failing to fence off their hired pieces of land. Other accusations include sexual harassment of women, engaging in illegal charcoal business, theft of animals and illegal possession of firearms as well as land grabbing amongst others.
At least twenty trucks laden with cows belonging to the Balaalo leave the region for Central and South Western Uganda where the pastoralists initially lived with their animals since the ministry of agriculture started implementing the decree on March 22nd. The decree affects more than 40,000 herds of cattle in the hands of more than 30 groups of nomads estimated to number some 15,000 people.
Edward Kamgaene, a pastoralist herding 200 cows in a rented area of Amuru district says government is not being fair to them by asking them to leave the north of the country within just few days.
“Government has been shifting the goal post all along. Initially we were told to fence our grazing land and stay. But today, we are being told to process movement permits, vaccinate our animals and leave. This is totally a different thing we were told to do earlier. How can this possible within a short time we have been given?” Kamagaene said with anger in his face.
Kamgaene says his livelihoods depend on pastoralism in which he fattens animals before selling them to abattoirs in Capital Kampala. He is worried that he will not be able to fend for his family without practicing pastoralism.
Kamagaene is one of the thousands of nomads who fled acute shortage of pastures and water in 2016 from South Western Uganda migrating up north to fatten his livestock in vast open savannah grassland inhabited by the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups. He says he is stuck with his livestock after learning that his home district is under quarantine due to Foot and Mouth disease.
“I have 100 cows in Nwoya district which I should move to Kyankwanzi district via the districts of Nakasongola and Nakaseke and yet these districts are under quarantine for Foot and Mouth disease. How can I go to these districts to pick movement permits without infecting my animals? How can I take my animals where there is a running quarantine?” Festus Shaka Mutabazi, a pastoralist from Nwoya district stated furiously.
Fred Munyeragwe borrowed a loan of 70 Million shillings for establishing his livestock project. He fattens his animal before selling them for money. He is so worried that he will lose his business alongside the land in Kiboga district he used as security to secure a bank loan if evicted from Northern Uganda.
“The government wants to make us poor. You tell us to work and feed our families. Again you come to disrupt our livelihoods. The pasture back in my home district is still dry and we need an average of two months if we are to relocate back. We don’t need to be pushed as if we are at war with the local community. We are not. Tell those government leaders to give us two more months to prepare ourselves and we move to where we are coming from” he pleaded with government.
Majority of the pastoralists, locally known as the Balaalo, come from the Ankole Cattle Keepers of South Western Uganda. According to President Museveni, some of them were expelled from Tanzania and Rwanda for practicing nomadism.
They started migrating with their animals on trucks in the dead of night without proper animal movement permits from their districts in 2009 to fatten their livestock on leased pieces of land in the north where vast uncultivated land, abundant fresh water streams and adequate green nutritious pasture exist. By 2016, their numbers had increased to more than 25,000 pastoralists with more than 40,000 herds of cattle.
Speaking with the nomads in Gulu (the Northern Uganda region’s biggest business hub) one week ahead of the eviction deadline, Vincent Ssempijja, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries said government would like to end nomadism in Uganda due to increase in human population. He warned that government will not hesitate to use force against the pastoralists who would not comply with the presidential directive to leave the region.
Ssempijja says “there is looming insecurity between the pastoralists and other people who do not want peace. We have decided here that we abide by the directive of the president to get the nomads out of this area. So we are giving it up to March 22 and everybody should have moved the cows from the northern part of this country”.
The eviction delayed three consecutive times to allow the pastoralists vaccinate their livestock against Foot and Mouth disease. The agriculture minister says the vaccination exercise suffered multiple delays due to shortage of vaccine.
“Initially, we could not vaccinate all the livestock we projected after we received only half of the consignment of vaccines we ordered for. Fortunately, the other half has reached the country and we are hopeful that it will be adequate to vaccinate all the remaining animals within the shortest possible time. In every fairness, everybody must accept to stop nomadism. It has caused a lot of problems in South Western Uganda. Animal diseases are so rampant” he stated one week to the commencement of the evictio.
In Gulu district, some 1,000 out of estimated 5,000 cows were vaccinated while in Amuru district, only 5,000 out of estimated 14,000 animals got vaccinated.
Patrick Okello Oryema, the Nwoya district chairperson where the nomads first settled says on average, seven large Lorries laden with cattle belonging to the pastoralists continue to leave his district daily for central and South Western Uganda.
Dr. Charles Obalim, Gulu district veterinary officer says many of the Balaalo shunned the vaccination programme saying government wants to harm their livestock.
“We initially targeted cattle belonging to the Balaalo pastoralists without those of their host communities. This was not well received by the pastoralists but we are telling them that cattle belonging to host communities were just recently vaccinated against foot and mouth disease. And I would like to reiterate that the vaccines are completely safe”
LAIKIPIA, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Two years ago, the global community drafted what is now known as the ‘Paris Agreement on climate change,’ which seeks for international interventions to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C.
But according to a new study conducted in all Kenya’s 21 semi arid land counties, at least five of them have already surpassed the 1.5 °C mark, and the impact especially on cattle survival is devastating. The most worrying part of the study is the projections, which show that the temperatures are going t rise even further in the coming years.
This comes just four years after the World Bank released a report synthesising scientific knowledge on global warming, which warned that the earth was on a path to a 4oC warmer by the end of the century - with huge implications for humanity.
According to the new study commissioned by the Canada based International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) – through a project known as Pathways to Resilience in Semi-arid Economies (PRISE), West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet are the most affected counties with temperature rise of 1.91oC in the past 50 years. Others include Turkana (1.8oC), Baringo (1.8oC), Laikipia (1.59oC) and Narok (1.75oC).
The most startling fact is that the study also found out that the overall population of cattle in all the 21 semi arid land counties has decreased by more than 26 % in the past 38 years, and the scientists who carried out the study are attributing this to the constantly rising temperatures due to global warming, and reduced or unpredictable rainfall patterns.
So far, Turkana County is the most affected in terms of cattle population reduction, recording a drop of near 60 % in the past 38 years ending 2015, followed by Machakos, Garissa, Kitui and Kajiado counties according to the study conducted by scientists from Kenya Markets Trust (KMT).
This is bad news particularly for Turkana, Garissa and Kajiado because livestock is the main source of livelihoods for residents in those counties.
However, all is not lost. While the cattle population was on the decline, sheep and goats’ overall population in the 21 semi arid counties increased by 76.3% during the same period, with some counties like Laikipia and Lamu recording 256.6% and 458% increase respectively.
According to the scientists, cattle can thrive well if the temperatures do not surpass 30oC and not below 10oC. But small animals like sheep and goats, and also camels can tolerate warmer temperatures, hence the reason why they were able to multiply exponentially in the wake of the rising temperatures.
These findings should therefore be a wake-up call for all counties. They should use such scientific information to reevaluate what is happening in terms of rising temperatures and rainfall variations and the projections in the next few years in order to come up with sound policies that are responsive to climate change.
One way of adapting to climate chocks and stresses will be by developing such policies with clear knowledge of what the near future is likely going to look like, with focus on appropriate technologies, while being mindful of crops or livestock animals that are going to survive in projected climatic conditions.
Three counties in the semi arid areas are already leading the way. Kitui, Tharaka Nithi and Embu Counties have joined hands with the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and faith based organisations to develop respective climate change policies based on experiments by local farmers to identify local technologies that can work as a way of adaptation.
According to Dr Mohammed Said, one of the PRISE researchers, 50mm change in rainfall can completely change the entire cropping system.
It therefore means that with the constantly rising temperatures, some crops will start performing poorly in places where they used to perform well, while others may start performing well in areas where they never thrived.
Considering the PRISE research findings, some counties will need to re-think and prioritise their livestock investment options to take comparative advantage of the resources they have, for example Laikipia and Isiolo could invest in cattle slaughterhouses, Marsabit goat slaughterhouse and Wajir county camel and sheep and goats slaughterhouses.
Such important knowledge must therefore be considered by all county governments as they continue developing their spatial plans.
