Mitigating Industrial Pollution Along the Atlantic Coast of Cameroon: An Overview of Government Efforts

Dieudonne Alemagi, Pius M. Oben and Jürgen Ertel
Additional contact information
Dieudonne Alemagi: Brandenburg University of Technology
Pius M. Oben: University of Buea
Jürgen Ertel: Brandenburg University of Technology

Environment Systems and Decisions, 2006, vol. 26, issue 1, 41-50

Abstract: Summary This paper presents an overview of the initiatives that have been formulated by the government of Cameroon to address the problem of industrial pollution. It also prescribes robust recommendations that could be employed to save the Atlantic coast of Cameroon from industrial pollutants. After the participation of Cameroon in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the government took a significant step to overhaul its institutional framework, legal framework and policy framework vis-à-vis the regulation of industrial pollution. Under the auspices of the United Nation Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the Gulf of Guinea Large Marine Ecosystem Project aimed at sustaining the health of the Atlantic coast of Cameroon by ensuring treatment of industrial wastes, oil spills, sewage and heavy metals was implemented (1995–1999). Based upon careful analysis, however, the paper argues that these efforts have had little or no discernable impacts and that industrial activities along the Atlantic coast of Cameroon are still a major threat to safety, health and the environment. With a considerable number of hurdles that still persist, sufficient environmental improvement in industrial pollution along the Atlantic coast of Cameroon is far-fetched. Nevertheless, the paper concludes that marked environmental improvement can be obtained if: (i) competent personnel are appointed in ministries that play an active role in mitigating industrial pollution (ii) research partnerships are forged with local universities (iii) industrial machinery and equipment are improved (iv) inter institutional conflicts are addressed (v) a more collaborative forum between stakeholders is established (vi) adequate monitoring is instituted.

Keywords: Atlantic coast of Cameroon; environmental improvement; industrial pollution; institutional framework; legal framework; policy framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10669-006-5357-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:envsyd:v:26:y:2006:i:1:d:10.1007_s10669-006-5357-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/10669

DOI: 10.1007/s10669-006-5357-z

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment Systems and Decisions from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().