Lake Nyos is now 85% degassed

Officials in Bamenda say the return of survivors is imminent.

Twenty eight years since Lake Nyos caused horror, killing and destroying some 2000 people, there is hope that survivors will soon return to the land of their ancestors.

It emerged from commemorative activities in Bamenda yesterday August 21, 2014 that the killer lake has been 85 per cent degassed and about 80 per cent of the lake’s dam has been reinforced.

From the look of things, the lake Nyos neighbourhood is once more save for habitation, but not until the government completes the demarcation of a security perimeter and works with local authorities to identify destroyed villages and develop measures to facilitate the reinsertion of survivors.

At press time, North West Governor, Adolphe Lele Lafrique is on the field in Nyos to launch the demarcation of the security perimeter.

In the region with the blessing of the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, the Director of Civil Protection, Dr. Jean Pierre Nana and the Director of the Institute of Geological and Mining Project (IRGM), Dr. Joseph Victor Hell, revealed that Scientific and administrative work has been stepped up to ensure the completion of the process for survivors to return.

It was against this backdrop that Dr. Joseph Hell said that the three degassing pipes planted in the lake in 2001 and 2010 are turning full circle with some 25 million cubic tonnes degassed every year.

He also revealed that there has been some “get grouting” or reinforcement of the lake’s dam and a concrete slap is on course to facilitate circulation for inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

Lake Nyos survivors in the Boyo camps of Kimbi and Buabua will on Monday, August 25, 2014 be privileged with gifts worth over CFA 33 million from the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation.

The gifts are summed up in food supplies, sanitary kids and didactic materials for the pupils, students and adults of the camps.

The Kimbi and Buabua camps in Boyo Division harbour 239 households, covering 2616 people, away from the five survivor resettlement camps in Menchum Division that received similar gifts last year.