Cameroon's hydropower potential and development under the vision of Central Africa power pool (CAPP): A review

Poor access to electricity remains a major hindrance to the economic development in Central Africa sub-region. To address this issue the Central African Power Pool (CAPP) has been established with the vision to create and manage a regional cross-borders exchange of electricity based on the development of the sub-region's enormous hydropower potential. However, the implementation of this vision is struggling with poor visibility on information related to the potential and the state-of-the-art of the development of hydropower in the member states. The objective of this work is to review the literature and data pertaining to the potential of hydropower and state of development in Cameroon, in the perspective of full access to energy in Central Africa as targeted by CAPP. The reviewed documents include both research articles and reports of investigative works carried out in the field of hydropower by various technical commissions since 1970s. This encompasses conventional hydropower at large and small schemes, storage dams and, pumped-storage for which a comprehensive synthesis of the available data and information appears crucial. A better understanding of the current state of hydropower in the country is provided as well some policy recommendations for a hydro-based development of the power sector in the whole sub-region. It is hoped that this paper contributes to synthesising the various assessments of Cameroon's hydropower potential, so as to address the issue of lack of visibility on data and information in the sector, as this has hitherto been a handicap to the fulfilment of the pool's vision.

Automated summary

This paper reviews the literature and data related to the potential and development of hydropower in Cameroon, with the aim of contributing to the fulfillment of the Central African Power Pool's vision of full access to energy in the region. By providing a comprehensive assessment of the current state of hydropower and offering policy recommendations, it helps address the issue of lack of visibility on data and information in the sector, thus supporting hydro-based development of the power sector in the whole sub-region.