“Clean the town, it’s your duty” – citizens tell Bamenda City Council

By Kate Bih

Bamenda city dwellers have been criticising the Bamenda City Council for abandoning decomposing garbage on the streets and in the markets. The Inhabitants described the waste management strategy of the Bamenda City Council as a monumental disgrace, adding that the council is working towards an outbreak of a disease in Bamenda.

Within the City of Bamenda, heaps of decaying waste are taking over major streets. At the Food Market as well as at the Ntarinkon Market, garbage has extended from the market into the road, rendering the two-way flow of traffic a one-way one.

Swiri, a fruit vendor at the Food Market, told MMI that the authorities are not ignorant of the disturbing situation, as they see them drive past in their air-conditioned cars.

“They don’t care about us. But it is their duty to clean the city,” she said.

Bamenda City Council outlines that, among other duties, the Mayor “Shall exercise road traffic policing powers within the jurisdiction of his council with objective to ensure public order, safety, tranquility, security and cleanliness”.

The Bamenda City Council, under the leadership of Paul Achombong as Mayor, has also abandoned garbage on major streets in Bamenda.

Within the city, citizens are alerted to the stench and buzzing of flies at least 300 metres away from the several garbage heaps littering the town.

“I feel like throwing up each time I approach any of the garbage heaps; unfortunately, they are everywhere and we cannot escape them,” said Manka, a teacher in Bamenda.

At the Ntarinkon market, traders say they have been paying their taxes yet cannot have basic services rendered by council authorities.

“We think it is a must for the Bamenda City Council authorities to clean the town, they are just being lazy by blaming insecurity for their lack of duty consciousness,” said Joshep, a trader at the Ntarinkon Market.

It is gradually becoming a tradition for the current Bamenda City Council authorities to abandon garbage on the streets, and they must often wait for city dwellers to start complaining before they get into action.