The Chad-Cameroon Pipeline 10 years after construction: The Situation on the Ground

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1 The Chad-Cameroon Pipeline 10 years after construction: The Situation on the Ground Valéry Nodem/Brendan Schwartz Réseau de Lutte contre la Faim (RELUFA) Cameroon

2 INTRODUCTION Context Update on the situation in the field for Chad and Cameroon Monitoring of World Bank policies and the rules of the project Suggestions et recommandations

3 Context 10 years after the Chad-Cameroon pipeline s construction, numerous commitments and promises have not been kept The people impacted by the project feel betrayed by the companies in charge of the project and by their governments The revenues generated by the project are not allocated to poverty reduction goals as planned, and are rarely spent on the most pressing needs Now NGOs in Chad and Cameroon are calling on the World Bank to sponsor an independent audit of certain social and environmental aspects of the project, with the goal of resolving all outstanding claims

4 Situation along the pipeline route In 2005 the oil consortium announced its «social closure» plan aimed at proving 100% compliance with the Environmental Management Plan (EMP). The consortium claimed less than 20 cases of noncompliance existed at the time. Chadian and Cameroonian NGOs rushed to the field and collected evidence in over 400 cases of noncompliance in Cameroon and over 800 in Chad.

5 Situation in the field Potable water - A RELUFA study came to the following conclusions about the quality of water on the pipeline: - of the water sources renovated by the oil consortium to compensate villages impacted by the project, 21% were immediately abandoned because they never worked - 27% had serious problems - 15% had minor problems - 12% functioned normally - 19% still hadn t been built - 5% had miscellaneous complications

6 Situation in the Field Compensations In Cameroon and Chad, 10 years after the beginning of construction, more than 1,000 people are still waiting to be compensated. The compensation process is clearly broken. Communities get no response after filing complaints, the governments have no presence in the field, and the oil consortium regularly blocks the process. Examples of outstanding compensation: worker accidents, destruction of crops, rerouted rivers causing damage, community/regional compensation, problems created by sub-contractors who have since left the country, etc. The Bank s Operational Directives were the basis for the creation of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP); which is regularly violated by the oil consortium. The IAG wrote in their final monitoring report «The WBG is not a signatory of the EMP. However, since it included the Plan s implementation by the Consortium and both countries in the terms of its loan agreements and other project documents related to the CCP, it has transitive responsibility for ensuring that the parties with which it signed contracts comply with this Plan.

7 Situation in the Field Indigenous peoples The Chad-Cameroon pipeline project created the FEDEC foundation for the protection of indigenous peoples in Cameroon. FEDEC s poor endowment and internal mismanagement have almost bankrupted the orgnization Each year, indigenous communities along the pipeline route receive fewer and fewer services.

8 Situation in the Field Health The Pipeline was associated with a huge increase in HIV/AIDS rates in impacted communities. No comprehensive baseline study was conducted in the health sector and thus it is impossible to determine the project s overall impact Anecdotal evidence points to a spike in HIV/AIDS cases in pipeline host communities

9 Situation in the Field Absence of monitoring by the State/repressive security In Chad and in Cameroon, the oil companies have the largest footprint in the field and thus local populations don t know who to complain to if there is a problem The government institutions created to monitor the project are very weak. The CPSP in Cameroon uses the oil consortium s vehicles to conduct monitoring; not independent. The CTNSC in Chad rarely conducts monitoring in the field. Government capacity building was a total failure in the project Communities in the Chadian oil zone are entirely surrounded by oil drilling because of the consortium s Oil well densification program. Adding 500 new wells. Some villages will likely be entirely displaced. Locals are regularly arrested for walking near oil wells which are near their homes The government enforces a 6 pm curfew for villages in the oil zone A couple weeks ago the Chadian Government banned a meeting planned by local NGOs to reflect on how to better manage the 5% of oil revenues allocated to the communities living in the oil zone. Local NGOs face harassment from the state and oil companies for carrying out their activities

10 Situation in the Field Use of Oil Revenues In Chad, the ratio of government spending on the military to health and education combined is around 4:1. The 5% of revenues allocated to the oil zone are almost entirely spent to beautify the regional capitol of Doba; 50 kilometers away from the villages greatly impacted by the project. The expenditures are for large infrastructure projects football stadium, local market, university, etc. Few expenditures correspond to the needs of the population. The «regional development plan» for the villages has been completely ignored. In Cameroon, the project has generated 66 billion FCFA in transit revenues. Unlike in Chad, there is no investment in communities impacted by the project despite the harsh externalities facing these people. Cameroon would benefit from the elaboration of a revenue management plan

11 Recommendations for future EI Projects Rural communities often lack access to judicial institutions to challenge the fairness of compensations. EI Projects that span large geographic areas should be accompanied by independent dispute settlement committees that have the legal jurisdiction to efficiently settle claims between individuals and the government or project operators. It is imperative that all disputes be settled before the EI project becomes operational. A percentage of government revenues from EI projects should be reserved for development in host communities (as is the case in Chad, but not Cameroon). This must be a contractual or legal obligation in the design of any EI project. Development investment in host communities should be regarded as an economic right. Compensations and development investments should be coordinated with already existing national development programs (i.e. the PNDP in Cameroon). This could create a multiplier effect for compensations related to the project.

12 World Bank s New Role Chadian and Cameroonian civil society organizations have been monitoring the social and environmental impacts of the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline since the project s inception In Cameroon, at the request of the International Advisory Group (IAG), a discussion platform was created bringing together the Oil Consortium, the Cameroonian Government, and NGOs. The platform had the exclusive mandate to examine and address unresolved issues. However, the problem-solving process with the Oil Consortium has not produced significant results. No similar platform exists in Chad The Oil Consortium and governments refuse to share information with NGOs that verify compliance with EMP Principles We are calling on the World Bank to sponsor an independent audit of the project to finally resolve the thousands of outstanding claims.

13 Work of NGOs Local NGOs have been working extremely hard to document the impacts of the project and find solutions to outstanding problems GRAMP-TC, CPPN, CPPL, FOCARFE, CED, RELUFA Please see various publications by RELUFA and partners for more information and recommendations Quel Souvenir website, documentary film, slideshow, photobooklet, and more soon available at