On March 16, 2017, CIMENCAM, the Cameroonian subsidiary of the Franco-Swiss Group LafargeHolcim Ltd, launched construction work on its new grinding station in Nomayos, in the village of Nkolfom-periphery of Yaoundé. The plant is the third of its kind after those in Douala and Figuil. In Cameroon’s legal context, a project of this scale is, in accordance with article 17 (1) of the Framework Law n0 96/12 of August 5, 1996 on environmental management, subject to the prior completion of an ESIA. The company initially complied with this obligation, and obtained an Environmental Compliance Certificate issued in 2011 by the Ministry of the Environment.
However, in addition to the above-mentioned framework law, other specific texts have been introduced. This is the case, among others, of Decree n0 2005/0577/PM of February 23, 2005 setting the modalities for carrying out ESIAs, amended by Decree n0 2013/0171/PM of February 14, 2013. And according to Article 25 (2) of this regulatory text, ” Lwhen a project, for which the ESIA has been approved, is not implemented within three (03) years from the date of approval, the Certificate of Conformity issued for this purpose becomes null and void “. In view of the above, CIMENCAM was supposed to comply with this requirement by taking over the ESIA for the project in question.
Unfortunately, the Réseau de Lutte contre la Faim (RELUFA) was able to observe during a field raid on Thursday, March 23, 2017 at the new site, that CIMENCAM failed to take over the ESIA for its new Nomayos cement plant, whose Environmental Certificate of Conformity dates back six (06) years. Yet CIMENCAM claims to be a ” responsible company which exercises its activities in compliance with legislation and regulations in force in Cameroon “.
