Lom Pangar Dam, Cameroon / Reports

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.

This joint report reveals how the aluminum industry in Cameroon is being prioritized over the energy needs of the country’s majority population, at great social and environmental risk, and without a participatory planning process for energy development.