Integrated Water Resources Management on the Southern Slope of the Bamboutos Mountains: Issues Related, Challenges and Prospects

This research on water resource management was carried out on the southern slope of the Bamboutos Mountains. The main objective of this study was to contribute to a better knowledge and understanding of the problems related to the exploitation of water resources on the southern slope of the Bamboutos Mountains in the hope of finding appropriate management strategies. More specifically, it was a matter of identifying the stakeholders involved in the exploitation of water resources on the southern slope of the Bamboutos Mountains, identifying the problems related to the exploitation of water resources on the said slope, determining the causes and consequences of the problems related to the exploitation of the said resource and finally identifying the strategies, as well as their strengths and weaknesses used by local populations to manage the problems related to the use of water resources. Access to secondary data, and semi-structured surveys allowed the study to be conducted. This study shows that the main actors involved in the exploitation of water resources are farmers, households, industries and finally ranchers. The main problems related to the exploitation of the resource on the said slope have been identified as: conflicts of use (48.60%), water-related diseases (21.30%), distance (18%) and finally the scarcity of the resource (11.90%). These problems have as their causes and consequences respectively: overexploitation of the resource (47.30%), climatic variations (21%), pollution of watercourses (30.40%), struggle between users (54.97%), difficulty of supply (20.50%), and decline in both agricultural and domestic activities (24.53%). In order to solve these problems, local populations have developed strategies ranging from agreement to friendly resolution of conflict problems, construction of health centers for waterborne diseases and construction of alternative and closer supply points to solve distance problems. Despite all these measures, these populations are still struggling to cope with problems that affect their daily well-being.   

A Comparative Geophysical Study of the Sedimentary-Metamorphic Contacts in the Douala and Kribi-Campo Sub-Basins of Cameroon

The magnetotelluric method has been used in this work to compare the nature of the sedimentary-metamorphic contacts of the Douala and Kribi-Campo sub-basins in Cameroon. The results show that the sedimentary-metamorphic contact zones for the two sub-basins, marked by a subsidence of the low resistivity materials on the sedimentary formations and uplift of the high resistivity materials characterized by intrusive bodies of higher values of resistivity on the metamorphic formations, are structurally similar,. However, the very low values of resistivity of rocks in the Douala sub-basin is suggestive of high porosity, permeability and high level of saline ions dissociation leading to high conductivity. These rocks should be of unconsolidated sediments for the sedimentary formation and gneiss for the metamorphic formation. On the contrary, the very high values of resistivity for rocks in the Kribi-Campo sub-basin indicate the absence of free mobile electrons and ions and low porosity, permeability and non-conductivity. The sedimentary formation of this sub-basin should be composed of limestone and conglomerates rocks with some gneissic and unconsolidated granitic materials. The rocks in the metamorphic formation should be completely granitic in nature. The shallow depth of penetration of only 4 km of telluric current in the Douala sub-basin is enough evidence that the tectonic events responsible for the emplacement of this contact zone were limited to the earth crust. On the other hand, in the Kribi-Campo sub-basin the tectonic events should have originated from within the earth mantle as the depth of penetration of telluric current attains 150 km