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dam-l Cameroon sells 51% of water firm/LS




Business Report    23/5/00

Cameroon sells 51% of water firm
Reuters, 23 May 2000
Yaounde - The government of Cameroon said at the weekend it had signed a
provisional agreement for France`s Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux to take a stake
of 51 percent in the national water company, SociCtC nationale des eaux du
Cameroun (Snec), after an international tender.


The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The announcement came within a week of the departure of a joint World
Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to evaluate Cameroon`s
progress in a structural adjustment programme that ends in June.

The international organisations had warned that accelerating the
privatisation process in the country, especially as regards the water
company, was crucial if Cameroon hoped to benefit from the heavily indebted
poor countries debt relief initiative.

''The 140 000 Cameroonian households that are currently benefiting from the
present water supply (by Snec) is discouragingly low and needs to be
improved,'' the IMF`s Menachem Kartz told state radio on May 15.

Snec of was created in 1967 to produce, store, transport and distribute
drinking water in the central African country.

An overwhelming majority of the people, even in urban centres, depend on
polluted streams, springs and lakes for their water needs.

Even in the capital, Yaounde, and the commercial centre, Douala, the water
supply is irregular. In 1999, there was a chronic shortage in the capital,
drawing protests from the diplomatic community.

In the year to June 30 1999, Snec had net turnover of nearly 16 billion CFA
francs (R158 million) from the sale of some 43 million cubic metres of
water.

http://www.busrep.co.za/static/20000523/africa_28830.html

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      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
        and Editor, World Rivers Review
           International Rivers Network
              1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
                  Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
                        http://www.irn.org
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