Electricity, Water supply to recieve boost

The 2016 draft budget of the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy stands at FCFA 214.1 billion. FCFA 208 billion will be gulped by public Investment Budget with FCFA 5.5 billion allocated as operational budget. The Minister of Water Resources and Energy, Basile Atangana Kouna presented the draft budget at the Committee on Finance and Budget of the National Assembly on December 1, 2015 with deliberations chaired by Hon. Rosette Ayayi and Jules Doret Ndongo, representative of the Vice Prime Minister, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with the Assemblies.

 Actions in 2016 will focus on the improvement of electricity and water supply. Mr Atangana Kouna said efforts will be stepped up to secure the country’s short, medium and long-term electricity supply. This will be achievable with the continuation of work on the Lom Pangar reservoir dam and the development of the Memve’éle and Mekin hydroelectric dams, he said. Completing embankment works, vibrated conventional concrete works, making the dam fully operational, manafacturing of the butterfly valves and construction of re-oxygenation threshold downstream are some of the earmarked works at the Lom Pangar in 2016.

The Memve’éle and Mekim hydropower dams like the Lom Pangar also have their fair share. In the petroleum sector, the execution of the project to construct the pipeline on the Limbe-Douala-Edea-Yaounde section is expected to begin by December 2016. The project to construct 150 drinking water supply systems in 150 secondary centres and villages will see light of day while US projects to construct 160 drinking water supply points in some rural areas are also earmarked for 2016. Minister Atangana Kouna holds that the “battle” for energy supply in Cameroon is no longer an option, but a vital issue.