CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Industrial activities are essential for the economy, the well-being of citizens and the
maintenance of employment. However, data from the European Environment Agency show
that the state of the environment continues to worsen in various areas. According to United
Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the majority of Cameroon’s
industrial units are not equipped with systems for pretreating their industrial waste (KENGNI
et al 2012). Despite remarkable progress in recent decades, almost all industrial sectors in
terms of the ecological efficiency of production processes, much remains to be done before a
sustainable situation can be achieved (Herbert A, 2003 p33). In the19th and 20th centuries,
industrialization had caused a significant increase in air pollution. Some cities or regions have
experienced tragic situations that have been attributed to a harmful action of pollutants on
health.
In 2017, the United Nations Environment Assembly was held under the theme
“Towards a pollution-free planet”, one of the main objectives of which was to combat
pollution in all its forms. Due to the increasing number of victims from pollution, they
discovered that about 91% of the world’s inhabitants breathe polluted air, causing some 7
million deaths each year. Globally, air pollution is estimated to cause about 29% of lung
cancer deaths, 43% of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) deaths, about 25% of ischemic heart disease deaths and 24% of stroke deaths. In most cities, ambient air quality is
below the World Health Organization‘s (WHO) standards. (First WHO World Conference on
Air Pollution and Health, 2018).
According to the latest State of the WHO‘s Environment report, close to 40 per cent of
cities equipped with an air quality monitoring network reported pollution indices equal to or
higher than the maximum level in 2007, category 3, whose threshold values are five times
higher than those recommended by WHO. The most polluted cities are urban areas with
between one and eight million inhabitants. These are often provincial capitals or coastal cities
whose economic development depends on a fabric of heavy activities, including in particular
energy production units, metallurgical or chemical industries. (Benjamin G, 2008).
Africa, like other continents, is confronted with pollution, as well as its multiple
impacts on health, and West African populations are exposed to PM10 pollution levels(particles with a diameter of 10 µm or less) of the same order of magnitude as most of the
world’s major megacities and industrialized cities. (EEA, 2009).
The African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) established a third
African Environment Outlook report in 2013 to monitor environmental management in
Africa.
According to them, it appeared that about 44% of harmful gases in Dakar were emitted by
industries. (World Bank Institute 1999). While in Cotonou, cement factories, textile factories
and oil mills were the subject of environmental concerns, especially in the industrial zone
where they were located, as they were responsible for 80% of the quantities of solid particles
emitted in the city (Agodokpessi E, 2003). According to the “GEO City Report of the Dakar
Region” prepared in 2007, the development of industrial activities in the city was a sector that
generated not only large quantities of waste but also hazardous waste.
In Cameroon, the National Environmental Management Plan was created on the 8th of
November 1996 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MINEF). The overall objective
of the PNGE was to develop policies, strategies and actions for the protection of the
environment and the rational management of resources in order to contribute to sustainable
development. In the implementation of this document, the DIED (Développement Industriel
Ecologiquement Durable) project had received support from UNIDO for the promotion of
clean industries in Cameroon, through the valorization of products, biodiversity and other
natural resources in Cameroon. Most industries in Cameroon are concentrated in her coastal
zones, particularly in Douala, Limbé and Edéa, where close to 80% of the industries are
located. In Douala (Cameroon’s economic capital), industrial waste is mainly dumped into the
natural environment without any prior treatment (AKINDAYO, 2016). The National
Environmental Management Plan for Cameroon (PNGE), in a study on industrialization and
industrial pollution showed that the agro-industrial sector contributes the most to industrial
pollution, followed by the chemical industry. This high rate of pollution caused by industrieshas become increasingly worrying and it is with this in mind that our research entitled
“Industrialization and Industrial Pollution in Urban areas: the case of in Douala in the Littoral
region of Cameroon” was initiated with the aim of analyzing the impacts of industrial
pollution on the urban environment of Douala.
3
1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Industrialization has been for a long time and remains considered the royal road to
development (Cazes and Domingo, 1987). In this context, industrialization preoccupies the
public authorities of developing countries, especially since no country has developed without
industrialization. All the industrialization strategies experienced in the world so far have
resulted in disappointing results and failures (Cazes and Domingo 1987, Brasseul 1993).
These failures are mainly due to pollution generated by industrialization.
The city of Douala, considered as the economic capital of Cameroon, converges
almost all national industries Production system. The industries in and around this city have become real environmental vandals. These industries directly reject their waste in nature
without prior treatment or precaution. Indeed, very few industries are equipped with treatment
facilities, although Act No. 96-12 of 5 August 1996 on environmental management in
Cameroon stipulates in Article 42, Section F of Chapter 5 that: “The waste must be treated in
an environmentally sound manner, in order to eliminate or reduce its harmful effects on
human health, natural resources, fauna and flora and the quality of the environment in
general. Industries are located in Douala due to its nearness to the sea that favors easy
evacuation of finished goods and services to other countries and for cooling of their
machines, the abundance of skilled and unskilled labor to work in industries, and the
proximity of the town to other regions in Cameroon.
In Bonaberi for example, there is the concentration of industries such as COMETAL,
CIMAF, CIMENCAM, CFAO Technologies, and Hadjass that emits gases during the
manufacturing of their products. In Bassa, we equally have companies such as PROMETAL,
SMALTO, METTAFRIQUE, BIOPHARMA, AND PILCAM. As demand for goods and
services increase, so does the mechanisms for production become complex to the detriment of
the local population, properties, plants and animals. High taxes levied on companies in
Cameroon in general and Douala in particular has made them to reduce their cost activities
one of which is the treatment of waste before disposal. As a result, they contribute, in
combination with urbanization, to the hydraulic loading of discharges and carry large
quantities of toxic substances that can contaminate surface and deep water, soils and the area
(Serghini et al., 2003). In a bit to maximize profit, some companies dispose their waste into
the river Wouri, river Sanaga and other rivers without treating them. Other industries dispose
4
their wastes into thin air and others into bare lands which has increased the rate of industrial
pollution in the city. Studies from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP, 1982
cited by UNIDO, 2002) showed that despite a domestic pollution that remains dominant,
there are indices of industrial pollution, estimated at 2187 tons/ year and for suspended solids
(suspended solids) at 48000 tons/ year for the city of Douala alone.
Pollution however has important effects on health and the biosphere, as evidenced by
exposure to pollutants and global warming that transforms the Earth’s climate and its
ecosystem, leading to the emergence of various short- and long-term effects on the health of
populations, previously unknown in certain areas. These diseases affect different groups of
people differently. We can therefore have increased risk of acute respiratory diseases (lung
diseases, Broncho pulmonary cancer, blood diseases, asthma, thrombocytopenia, leukemia
also called cancer of the blood). Residents are also exposed to skin cancer because these
surrounding companies emit waves and lasers. The most vulnerable populations here are children, the elderly and low-income households with limited access to health care. When the
impacts of air pollution become unbearable to some inhabitants, they decide to take measures
such as migrating from Douala to other towns, relocation from industrial zones to other areas,
or repartition of family members to less risk zones. Fauna and flora species that cannot adapt
to their new biophysical environment suffer and get to extinction. Therefore, the main
orientation of this work is considering industrialization as a major contribution to pollution in
Douala and the measures put in place by stakeholders to remedy the situation. Under the
framework of our study, air, water and soil pollution will be analyzed. To do this, the
following questions are taken into consideration.
1.2 RESEACH QUESTION
From our research problem, we established our research question varying from main and
specific questions.
1.2.1 Main research Question
What are the implications of industrial pollution in Douala?
1.2.2 Specific research questions
1. What is the state of industrial pollution in Douala?
2. What are the manifestations of industrial pollution in Douala?
3. What are the strategies put in place by stakeholders to mitigate industrial pollution in
Douala?