Eight months after PM’s firm instructions: Roads, garbage disposal in Yaounde still in shameful state.

Dion Ngute had organised an emergency meeting on October 26, 2023, at the Star Building, with concerned stakeholders, hitting his hand on the table for the city’s roads to be fixed and poor urban waste disposal addressed.

Exactly eight months after the instruction was given, more roads have further broken, while the number of household waste heaps in the city has rather increased. 

In addition to these, sewage spewing from homes onto to the streets, posing a threat to public health has also further compounded the hygienic outlook of the nation’s capital city.

But for some works which have also been criticised as being substandard around the Carrefour Obili to Presidential Guard stretch in Melen and Efoulan-Lac, the status quo has not changed.

Analysts say the moves that gave a semblance of actions being taken in line with the instructions of the Prime Minister were nothing short of throwing dust into the eyes of the population.

Major roads in Yaounde, which millions of citizens use daily, have continued to worsen. Potholes that long developed are today craters. The situation has made circulation across the seat of the nation’s institutions difficult. 

In some neighbourhoods, commercial motorcycles, vehicles and pedestrians continue to battle every day on paths akin to the medieval age, to get to other parts of the city.

The shame that has covered Yaounde through bad roads and poor waste disposal has not spared even the Etoudi neighourhood, where the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, resides.

The Etoudi Marche, sixième Etoudi Canal 2 Road, all around the presidential neighbourhood, are no better. 

The stretches are riddled with yawning craters just like what obtains in the Biyem Assi-Obili stretch, which is host to several travel agencies.

Besides the Presidential Guard stretch in Melen that was worked on after the PM’s order, nothing has happened in areas such as; Biscuiterie, Emombo, Essos, Nkolmesseng, Anguissa, Efoulan Carrefour, Carrefour MEEC, Oyomabang, Cite Verte, Damas and Madagascar neighbourhoods.

Added to the stretches in ruins are; the Marche Nkoleton, Bata Nlonkack, Biyem-Assi, Accacia Carrefour, Marche Madagascar, Santa Barbara, Nkolmbong Abbatoire, Mendong Gendarmerie, Entre Simbock-Carrefour Jouvance stretch, Marche Central among others.

Yaounde’s poor state reflection of country?

For those who have not been having it easy with government, the insulting state of roads and abhorrent waste collection system in place within Yaounde, paint an image of what obtains elsewhere nationwide.

Critics say if those in power cannot restore sanity in terms of waste management and fix roads within the capital city, it is almost impossible to expect something better elsewhere.

Government, some say, is being caught in a web of procrastination and lack of proper follow-up on aspects of national life that have a direct bearing on the living conditions of the people.

They point to Yaounde as having in addition to bad roads, poor waste disposal, insufficient potable water and epileptic electricity, despite the fanciful projects brandished and flamboyant meetings staged to redress such regularly.

No special budget to redress mess!

When the Prime Minister, Head of Government went tough to reverse the situation, many, among them government officials, had rather proposed a special budget head, especially for road works. 

Given that the 2023 budget consumption was already coming to an end then, many had hoped that the 2024 Finance Law was going to have a special allocation to fix roads in Yaounde.

But the sad reality across the capital city speaks of reckless abandon. 

Midway into 2024 with the State budget being reviewed upwards, but nobody has said anything relating to getting roads in Yaounde repaired. 

Filth overwhelms Yaounde City Council 

Despite running on a budget that is in billions of FCFA annually with surpluses always reported at the end of every fiscal year, the waste disposal conundrum in Yaounde, others say, has overwhelmed the City Council.

At the local level, it is the institution that is supposed to clean the city and clear household waste. 

In the meantime, there are unconfirmed reports that authorities of the City Council have launched an international tender to recruit three companies to manage waste disposal. 

The Guardian Post gathered that tentatively, the city has been split into three pending its handing over for regular waste collection when new actors begin work.

The proposals have not instilled hope for better days given that, a second waste collection company, Thyclof, that was brought in to assist HYSACAM clean especially Yaounde III Subdivision, has not changed the situation. Thyclof was presented to the public on January 23, 2023.

Revisiting 13.5 billion FCFA request

When the Prime Minister went tough, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Celestine Ketcha Courtes, had granted an interview to the state broadcaster, Cameroon Radio Television, CRTV, indicating that 13.5 billion FCFA was needed to patch roads in Yaounde.

“We found out that only for Yaounde, we need 13.5 billion FCFA to address these potholes. Unfortunately, we have one billion FCFA to do it," she had said.

Where is promised BCR compact method?

Ketcha Courtes, while talking then as 2023, was ebbing, had said in 2024, the Base Course, BCR, compact baton method was going to be put to use in Yaounde to redress the situation. 

The BCR method involves the use of local materials to produce pavements for road construction. 

Citing success stories in Bertoua, Bafoussam and Garoua, Ketcha Courtes had said “...in 2024, we will introduce this new form”.

When will there be money?

For one thing, when PM Dion Ngute pushed for emergency works, members of government who attended the meeting raised concerns about finances.

Like Ketcha Courtes, Decentralisation and Local Development Minister, Georges Elanga Obam, had raised the issue of scarce resources. 

Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi of Public Works had rather talked of long term plans to reclassify the roads and then later budget for their tarring.

Were critics right?

When the PM ordered emergency works, critics had said the move was because strangers were expected in the country within that period. 

Cameroon hosted at least 400 delegates from member countries of the Organisation Internationale de La Francophonie, IOF, on November 4 and 5, 2023.

 They came to Yaounde for the 44th Ministerial Conference of IOF.

Many had said the signs of concern within government circles over the poor state of roads and shameful garbage management then, was because of the foreign delegates who came for that confab.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No: 3156 of Tuesday July 02, 2024