The legal and institutional framework for the control of environmental pollution in Cameroon
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Recent years have seen appreciable growth in the level of understanding of the dangers facing the national and international environment and an extensive range of environmental problems is now the subject of serious international concern.
These include atmospheric pollution, marine pollution, global warming, ozone depletion, the dangers of nuclear and other extra-hazardous substances, and threatened wildlife species. Such problems though emanating from a single state have an international dimension in two obvious respects.
First, pollution generated from within a particular state often has a serious impact on other countries.
Cameroon in an attempt to control this pollution which has adverse effects has enacted national laws to control the various types of pollution such as Law No 96/12 of August 5th, 1996 relating to Environmental Management as well as the 1998 Law on water regulation, while ratifying many international conventions in her attempt to control environmental pollution.
Despite these attempts made by the government to control environmental pollution, environmental pollution still prevails in Cameroon especially in industrial sites like Douala.
This is because though these laws have been adopted, the implementation measures are lacking behind with much of the blame going to lack of adequate resources to combat environmental pollution, as well as lack of environmental specialists.
This research, therefore, ends by proposing that the Cameroon government should prioritize environmental impact assessment measures while always taking into consideration the precautionary and the preventive principle to control environmental pollution in the country.