Crumbling Natural Dam In Cameroon Threatens Thousands - Reuters

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YAOUNDE - A natural dam holding back a lake in Cameroon is on the verge of collapse, threatening to unleash a wall of water into neighbouring Nigeria and sweep away 10,000 people in its path, a scientist warned on Thursday.

Erosion has weakened the barrier holding back Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon, where a cloud of carbon dioxide that had accumulated under the water escaped in August 1986, killing 1,800 people in surrounding villages. Doctor Isaac Njilah, a geologist at the University of Yaounde, said the region could soon face a much worse disaster if a volcanic tremor fractures the weakened dam, unleashing a torrent that would thunder downhill into Nigeria.

He said the wall of volcanic -- or pyroclastic -- rock had become so fractured that it could burst at any time. "The natural pyroclastic dam holding back the millions of cubic metres of water in the lake is rapidly being deteriorated by mechanical and chemical agents of weathering and erosion and is at the point of collapse," he told Reuters after assessing the lake, 300 km (185 miles) northwest of Yaounde. "If immediate action is not taken, the collapse of this dam will result in the deaths of thousands of people in the northwest province of Cameroon, and the Taraba and Benue states of Nigeria," he said.

He estimated that about 10,000 people in Cameroon and Nigeria would be drowned by a surge of 50 million cubic metres of water if the dam collapses.

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