Poor Topography Puts Limbe In Danger

Limbe City Mayor

Paul Efome Ngale

 

By Robert Abunaw

The peaceful and serene coastal city of Limbe 96 .629 has entered very challenging days.

Its poor topography and Climate change effects characterized by excessive rainfall, landslides and floods are giving the population and City Authorities sleepless nights.

To mitigate what from all indications appear to be caused by its poor topography and deforestation, 90.000 plants are currently being nursed in a jumbo nursery created by the Limbe city council.

These plants it is believed will be able to hold the loose soil of Limbe which is partly responsible for floods and landslides.

According to the City Mayor, Mr. Paul Efome LM Ngale, “the current rainy season has severe environmental challenges”. We are facing floods landslide a failed drainage system. He said observation and studies show that landslide around the periphery of the city are the main cause of the floods and subsequent difficulty in drainage out to the sea.

We are working with partners to plant trees that can help stabilize the slopes of Limbe.

The trees are a kind of reforestation effort to once again balance the ecosystem, of a once forested landscape.

Don’t build on these slopes; because it’s a high risk area, the City mayor of Limbe says he has warned the population. We have been trying to sensitize the population through what the mayor calls “a participatory approach”.

The official in charge of environmental urban development management at the Limbe city council says the climate change related environmental and conservation challenges are reoccurring phenomena in the city, “certain areas were declared disaster zones”.

We are now into clearing the main water way, leading to the sea. Much water flowing from the slopes saturated our main drainage system and the result is this big damage to the population and their property.

We are trying to put early warning systems. We shall introduce equipment that should be able to measure hydrography and help stabilize slopes. He warned that the soil in recent land slide areas is not yet stable.

We are going to use a plant that has been successful in South America in the mitigation of ecosystems on slopes. The roots of this plant he explained can go about 9 meters deep into the soil.

The head of department of Geology in the University of Buea, appreciates the efforts of the Limbe City Council, to reforest the slopes of Limbe, Professor Agyngi described the Hills all around Limbe as Volcanic Cones. He explained that the town of Limbe is situated at the foot of Mount Cameroon, with several volcanic pools. These slopes or hills he added are as a result of volcanic eruptions.

Quizzed on how come these landslides are happening only now and not 30-40 years ago, he said the population density of Limbe is getting higher; people are looking for houses, so they go build on these slopes where they were not to temper in the first place.

He added that The Limbe City Council could have mapped out “NO Go Area” for Human Habitation.

“It’s clear that should you go build on areas declared unsafe for habitation, then you are looking for landslide. It’s clear the Limbe case has been driven by urbanization and deforestation.” He said

We found out if landslides could be contained if the council had been proactive terracing the slopes like in the case where plantations are created on hills that have been terraced at one time or the other could the landslides be contained.

The Geologists said, “Terracing works when the hills are made of hard rocks. An example is the SANCHO HILL on the road to Dschang. Terracing on the hill is on hard rocks, but should you do terracing on material that is loosed in a sense, terracing will fail as you are even tempering the more.”

He added that no development or construction can be carried out on the cones of Limbe. They should have been left alone.

With the present climate change predicament, the learned professor said the Limbe City Council should go for reforestation. “Leave the volcanic cones alone”.  He said

According to Professor Agyngi, should the council decide to exploit the material in the cones, then it should be the only reason to temper with those slopes and that presently, some cone sites along the west coast of Limbe are being used for excavation of raw materials for producing cement.

These cones, he said, cannot be envisaged as sites that can be used for the urbanization of the city of Limbe hence any plans for the expansion of Limbe should be elsewhere.

Professor Agyngi ended by saying that in Africa, people are not proactive in terms of safety.

“Some action comes only after disaster falls, even then just for a while and it is business as usual. All high risk zones in Limbe must be evacuated and the council sees how to create human settlements out of disaster prone volcanic cones.” The expert warns.