aug 16, 2018 - orange Cameroon ordered to pay a fine of 5 million euros for "soil degradation and deterioration of air quality."

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Hunting polluters not paying

The Cameroonian government has published the list of 395 companies contravening its environmental rules and dragging in fulfilling their fine.

Against pollution, Cameroon began banging his fist on the table. Tired of waiting for the companies operating in the country will please decide to comply with environmental laws, the government released late last week, the list of those derogating. Nearly 400 schools - 395 to be precise - are thus given sum to pay a fine ranging from 1 million to 50 million CFA francs (1,500 to 76000euros). The amounts may seem paltry, unless it specifies that a lot of local SMEs are punctured - shops, bakeries, dry cleaning companies. Most were punished for continuing to distribute non-biodegradable plastic bags between 2013 and 2015. In this category, the penalties s'

"More than 4950 hazardous classified establishments'

Some offenders, however, are bigger fish. Several companies hydrocarbons and public works and fined for not respecting the laws on environmental protection in the daily operation of their business. Thus goes he Buns company of a number of paving in the country, Green Oil Cameroonian gasoline pump, or of Petrolex, energy conglomerate covering a large part of Africa.

Institutions themselves, such as health care providers or slaughterhouses, were pinned to illegal waste elimination. Some figures are even more surprising. Thus, the operatororange Cameroonif he sees, too, ordered to pay a fine of 5 million euros for "soil degradation and deterioration of air quality."

For none of them the ax falls by surprise. "Between 2013 and 2015, environmental inspectors and controllers have to visit more than 4950 establishments classified as dangerous, unhealthy and unsuitable on the national territory," says Aoudou Joswa, Chief of the National Brigade of environmental inspections at the Ministry of 'Environment, nature Conservation and sustainable Development in an interview with the daily Cameroon Tribune. Among the recurring offenses, services have identified audit realization defects or environmental impact study, cases of air pollution, soil, subsoil or groundwater and surface water, or poor waste management.

For Orange, the non-payment back to 2014 ...

The offense is not new. But those whose name has just been published in the official press dragged to fulfill its payment. In the case of Orange, plum dated back to 2014. The phone operator has obviously gone overboard: exasperated, the Minister of Environment of Cameroon, Pierre Hele, now threatens to bring him before the territorially competent courts.

Marie-Noëlle Bertrand

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