A Stitch… In Time

At last the badly needed water in the Lom Pangar Hydroelectric Reservoir is there. Good news indeed.

The process of filling the reservoir projected to contain six billion cubic metres of water was launched on August 17. The full launching of the operation comes eleven months after the partial filling exercise that was undertaken in September a year ago. Authorities of the Electricity Development Corporation were on hand to ensure that all was ready for the whole process to begin. Now that the real filling of the reservoir has been concretised, the perennial complain of water shortage which has been blamed for seasonal load shedding ought to be a thing of the past. Lom Pangar, the multibillion hydroelectric project is, in the real sense, the cornerstone of electricity supply in the country.

Located about four kilometres downstream of the Lom River’s confluence with the Pangar River and about 13 kilometres upstream of where the Lom joins the Sanaga River, the Lom Pangar Dam has as peculiarity the production of hydroelectric power on the one hand and the regulation of water flow along the Sanaga River on the other. The reservoir is expected to step up flow of the Sanaga River by 1,000 cubic metres a second upstream the SongLoulou Dam as well as increase production at the Edea hydroelectric dam, stabilising the 160 Megawatt energy production from the two dams.

It is for this reason that the Lom Pangar Hydroelectric Project represents a master piece in government’s strategy to ensure in the short and long term, regular electricity supply in the country at lower cost. The project that has received the financial support even though in form of loans, from several international financial institutions, will for sure, optimise socio-economic development in the country.

The question on many minds is whether or not this will really solve the problem of electricity cuts. This qu...