FILE: Aftermath of 1986 Lake Nyos disaster
Cameroon Journal, Bamenda – Absalom Monono Wolua, Secretary General at the North West Governor’s office has disclosed that of the 32,051,873,000 FCFA budgeted as 2016 Public Investment Budget, PIB, for the region, the Lake Nyos area in Menchum Division will gulp some 200 million FCFA.
The Secretary General made the disclosure in Bamenda, Thursday January 7, while launching the 2016 PIB for the region. Similar launchings took place at regional levels across the country same day.
Going by Absalom, 100 million FCFA would be used to resettle victims of the August 1986 Lake Nyos gas disaster. He also noted that the rest of the amount budgeted for the Lake Nyos area will be used for containing the persistent risk that abounds in the area.
In a bid to avert misappropriation of the designated funds, the civil administrator warned that stringent follow-up measures would be put in place. He indicated that those who are caught pinching the funds will be severely sanctioned as per laws in place.
It should be recalled that on August 21, 1986, an eruption took place in the Lake, located in Nyos, a small village in Menchum division and triggered the sudden release of tons of carbon dioxide. The gas spilled over the northern lip of the lake into a valley running roughly east-west from Cha to Subum, and then rushed down two valleys branching off to the north. It displaced natural air and suffocated some 1,700 people within 25 kilometers of the lake. Mostly villagers as well as 3,500 livestock perished.
Experts say the lake, however, remains a permanent threat as estimates of the rate of carbon dioxide entering the lake suggest that out-gassing could occur every 10–30 years, though a recent study shows that release of water from the lake, caused by erosion of the natural barrier that keeps in the lake’s water, could in turn reduce pressure on the lake’s carbon dioxide and cause a gas escape much sooner.
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