In the framework of its project entitled "Support for the mitigation of environmental impacts and improving the living conditions of communities of Nangbéto Dam and the project Adjarala Dam", Les Amis de la Terre Togo, organized a visit to the community and contacted local leaders from communities affected by the activities of Nangbéto Dam. Here is what some have told us:

Chief of Asante Village

When the promoters came, they told us that the implementation of the project will cause displacement, when we are displaced we will live in better conditions, we will lack nothing and they will take care of us for 3 years. But after they built the dam, we suffered a lot that year, we lacked food. Our homes have all fallen down; they have not compensated us for the farms destroyed, the lands taken. We were better in our old homes; we are suffering now than before. They have also promised electricity, drinking water, food for 3 years but after 3 months, they told us that we do not need to be taken care of because we are not chicks. We are farmers, but as our lands have been taken, we have more lands to farm. Before, we did not need to use fertilizer to grow crops, but the lands we occupy today are degraded, and we are forced to use chemical fertilizers.

The son of Nangbeto village Chief

We asked the “Compagnie Electrique du Benin (CEB)” to rebuild our homes. They promised to come back but they never did. They said that we are not chicks to take care of us. Moreover, they argued they weren’t ones who had built our old houses, so if we do not build our new houses ourselves, it is our own problem.

It was MM. Amefia and Aziable who led the project; they are the people we know. When we told them that the place has become wet, that there is mud everywhere and we do not want to stay here, they remained indifferent to our concerns. The majority of houses constructed fell down, there is nothing around here. Young people are leaving the village because they do not have homes and perspectives, they go to Nigeria. We have no means, nothing. There is no water. We are just waiting for death. All our resources are drowned by the waters of the dam. There is only one pump here, and, when it breaks down, we have to go to the dam to fetch water.

I saw the construction plans made by the white people, but Amefia and Azianblé have chased them out. It is Amefia and Aziablé who have moved us; they refused to build what is on the plans of the white people.

Woman from the village of Okouta Lakou

We were told there will be dam construction and moved to this place. We were told that when we are moved, they will build for us new homes, they will give us food for some time, and there will be compensation. But they have not kept their promises. The few houses they have built for inhabitants collapse. Where we were before, we grew maize, sorghum, beans, palm oil, rice and cassava. Now, water has invaded the lands and what we plant does not grow well. There are not enough lands to cultivate. These lands belong to the people of Akparé.

We, women, suffer from lack of drinking water, firewood. What we sell where we were, it is impossible to sell them here. Before, we planted cassava for the production of gari, but now that the water has invaded the lands, it is no longer possible; so we are starving.

This fact causes problems in the household because when man is growing no more to feed his wife and children there are tensions.