Limbe I
residents are recovering from devastating floods and landslides that hit the
town on Tuesday July 24 leaving many homeless and at least five dead. These
floods which came following torrential rains affected the lowlying parts of the
Limbe I Municipality notably Church Street,
Clerks Quarters, Down Beach and Mbonjo area where the landslides occured. The
Limbe rains have been on rendezvous on annual bases but when accompanied by
destructive landslides it becomes a call for concern.
The heavy
rains continued into Wednesday July 25th pushing the South West Governor Benard
Okalia Bilai to visit the town and see the degree of distructions for himself.
The landslides and three deads and the rains that pushed into the second day
have sent a shiver down the spines of many as they recall the ordeal of June
2001 during which 24 lives were lost.
The most
destructive floods accompanied by landslides that took human lifes in Limbe was
on June 27, 2001. According to the publication of June 2004 on Journal of African Science titled
« The June 27, 2001 Landslide on volcanic cones in Limbe, Mount Cameroon,
West Africa » authored by Ayonghe S.N., Ntasin E.B., Samalang P. and Suh
C.E. affiliated to the Department
of Geology and Environmental Science at the University of Buea and the Soil Science Laboratory, Institute of Agricultural
Research for Development, Ekona, PMB Buea, Cameroon, the following report was
made on the situation of landslides and floods in Limbe.
« On 27
June 2001, between 12:00 and 14:00 hours GMT, the worst ever recorded
landslides and floods in the history of Cameroon occurred on volcanic cones in
Limbe, killing 24 people. This brisk event, which from eyewitness reports,
lasted for about 30 min, produced more than 43 landslide scars, several tension
cracks, destroyed 120 houses and rendered over 2800 people homeless. Field
studies indicated the alignment of the landslide scars along a
northwest-southeast zone antithetic to the Mabeta fault previously identified
by a linear pattern of earthquake epicentres along its length, although volcanic
rocks cover this fault. The landslides occurred on slopes with dips ranging
from 35° to 80°. The regolith from the slide surfaces destroyed trees and
houses, and blocked gutters producing floods along the low-lying coastal parts
of Limbe. The mechanism of sliding ranged from planar sliding or mud flows on
impermeable surfaces of basaltic flows and/or compacted clayey volcanic tuff,
to rotational sliding, or toppling failure on the steeper slopes. Intensive
rainfall which preceded the event for two days as well as human intervention on
slopes in the form of farming and terracing to build houses, were important
contributory factors. On the basis of these findings, measures aimed at
reducing the impact of future landslides on the population in the area are
proposed. »
Note worthy
is the fact that 17 years after the root causes of the floods and landslides
were identified around the Mabeta New Layout area and urgent measures proposed
to reduce the impact of future landslides on the population in the area the
area is still a risk zone with people constructing there. As seen in the
report, a huge National project is needed in that part of town to protect the
lives of Cameroonians living in Mabeta New Layout.
However,
with the present developments in Mbonjo, Limbe’s risk zones seem to be more
than just Mabeta New Layout. Limbe needs a deeper and larger study to guarantee
the safety of its populations in years to come. The Government should as such
consider it as an emergency considering the detailed reports that already
exist showing the area as a risk zone.
EdevNewspaper/Email:edevnewspaper@gmail.com/ francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel: +237678401408/ +237696896001
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