Displaced communities along the Kribi Power Plant transmission line between Kribi and Edea will soon be resettled. Already 80 per cent of work has been realised.
Following project by the power utility corporation AES-Sonel to construct a transmission line from the Kribi Power Station in Kribi (Ocean Division) to Edea (Sanaga Maritime Division), the communities along the Kribi-Edea stretch have been affected. About twenty-two homes affected by the project will soon resettle in new homes to be offered as compensation through partnership between the Local Materials Promotion Authority (MIPROMALO) and Kribi Power Development Company (KPDC), a subsidiary of AES-Sonel.
The homes constructed with local materials in collaboration with beneficiaries, estimated to cost above FCFA 100 million, will resettle the population earmarked to be displaced. Those to be resettled are families whose homes are under the transmission lines. Majority of them are merely residential housing structures, like thatches and mud-built structures, far lesser in value to the sumptuous MIPROMALO constructed houses. The population will be officially handed over the houses in the next two weeks when the power company is expected to start connecting cables on the iron poles along the road. According to Bonga Pierre Patrick, Assistant Manager of KPDC Social Projects, the displacement will afford some security for the population living along the line as well as transmit 400 megawatts of energy to the locality.
The houses cost between FCFA six to 12 million and range from four to eight rooms, including kitchens, bathrooms, corridors and large balconies. Built with compressed bricks, principally stabilised lateritic earth, the houses provide additional comfort like being thermally insulated and sufficiently ventilated. “They are environmentally-friendly, respecting ecological norms and providing optimum comfort,” Chief of Construction Service, Robert Bidime, explained. Ndongo Lazare, a beneficiary, expressed satisfaction with the house. “I am moving from wooden structure to a modern house. That gives me some dignity”. Christians of the Seventh Day Adventist Church at Ebea linked it to divine favour and a measure of evolution in their Christian life moving from the thatch hall into a God-given modern auditorium.
General Manager of MIPROMALO, Pr. Uphie Chinje Melo, was on a working visit to the construction sites in Mpolongwe, Longji, Efifinda, Bivouba, and Malimba on January 17. She made an assessment of the level of execution of the construction and held brief exchanges with the beneficiaries. She briefed Cameroonians about the advantages of using local materials: “They are inexpensive, beautiful, balance with the environment and labour intensive; that is, employs many people thus solving the problem of unemployment”.
