By Tata Mbunwe
Population increase is taking many cities in Cameroon unawares as social infrastructure grows inadequate to contain a spiraling population.
The coastal city of Limbe in the South West, once considered the nation’s cleanest, has lately been drowning in uncollected household garbage, with waste piling up on roadsides.
The city Mayor, Paul Efome Ngale, says waste management in Limbe has been constrained by a spike in population from 80,000 inhabitants a few years back to over 300,000.
More people means more garbage is pouring onto the streets, and the contracted waste collection company, Hysacam, can only clear off a limited tonnage of waste each month, based on its past arrangements with the city council.
Mayor Efome Ngalle says the city council has signed a new contract with Hysacam to increase its tonnage of waste collection in order to match the population growth.
Authorities from both institutions met with Hysacam officials early this week to chart a new path to Limbe’s garbage problems.
“I want to assure you that the contract is very, very rich. It is very feasible that it can manage this municipality… I think that if that vision in the contract is well exploited, Limbe will be more than what it used to be even with the present population,” said Paul Efome Ngale.
But the demographic problem isn’t unique to Limbe. In Buea, the South West regional capital, roads have become narrower due to the surging number of vehicles and people who have to use them daily.
The town has also seen a population spike, according to the Buea Council, partly due to the ongoing Anglophone armed conflict, which has displaced hundreds of thousands.
Social amenities like water and electricity are rationed in most cases, and congestion has caused several electrical transformers in Buea to explode, leaving many neighborhoods in the dark for months.
The country’s largest cities—Douala and Yaounde— are not spared. Flooding, attributed to inadequate drainage, blocked gutters and poor town planning, is a yearly problem in Douala, the economic capital.
Narrow roads and limited travel options such as the absence of a modern railway system contribute to daily traffic jams that often last hours.
The political capital Yaounde’s garbage crisis reached alarming levels this year, with popular road junctions piled with garbage.
Cameroon’s population currently stands at over 30 million inhabitants and is projected to grow by 2.59 percent annually, according to Worldometer, a worldwide population tracking website.
Of this population, 59 percent or over 17 million lives in urban areas, with the most populous cities including Douala, Yaounde, Maroua, Bafoussam and Bamenda.
But these cities are increasingly being challenged by housing problems, roads, electric and water crises.
Experts say serious measures and town planning must be bolstered to make Cameroon’s cities sustainable in the face of future population growth.
