Government, Stakeholders Seek Ways to Tackle Cameroon’s Urban Waste Plague

The Cameroon government is engaging stakeholders in waste management and recycling in a two-day forum that seeks to tackle the lingering issue of urban waste, which measures at 6 million tonnes annually.

The forum, organised in Yaoundé by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the Ministry of Decentralisation, kicked off this Tuesday, May 6.

One of the outcomes of the conclave will be a document that will spell out an inclusive and sustainable waste management mechanism for the country.

This document, a draft of which is under examination, encourages waste reuse and recycling for income generation.

The focus is on establishing an integrated approach that will make waste management a more collaborative effort rather than leaving it to organisations like HYSACAM.

Long-standing Waste Management Inadequacies

The forum is a response to waste management challenges that have plagued Cameroon for decades.

Most urban centres in the country struggle with uncollected garbage, which often overwhelms temporary dump sites and spills onto roads, blocking gutters, causing traffic and floods.

The city of Yaoundé recently became a negative example of this issue after garbage piles overflowed onto major streets, creating a nuisance in the political capital.

Stakeholders blame inaccurate waste management legislation, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of finances for the lingering issue.

Laws governing waste management in Cameroon task municipal and city councils with the duty of managing waste.

However, other state structures like the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Environment share overlapping responsibilities in waste management, often resulting in lack of proper responsibility when things go wrong.

Also, most municipal councils have subcontracted waste management to a company named Hygiène et Salubrité du Cameroun (HYSACAM) – a French acronym meaning hygiene and sanitation in Cameroon.

This company is responsible for collecting garbage from the streets and dumping it at permanent dump sites.

HYSACAM’s Failure

However, the company has often failed at this job, and its hierarchy blames the government for not paying them on time—which causes frequent strikes by their workers.

To help councils finance waste management, the government introduced a special tax— a 0.5 percent excise duty on all imports. This was through a 2023 prime ministerial decree.

This money is collected and transferred to the council support fund (FEICOM), which then redistributes to councils for waste management.

But despite the government’s efforts, inadequate infrastructure and finance remain major issues stalling waste management in Cameroon.

For example, in 2023, the government estimated that waste collection in Yaoundé alone would cost FCFA 4.7 billion. But a World Bank study of 2016 indicated that this city alone required FCFA 15 billion for annual waste collection.

Looking forward, the government is capitalising on waste recycling and reuse to sustainably stem the problem.

Housing Minister Celestin Ketcha Courtes, who is representing Prime Minister Dion Ngute at the two-day national forum in Yaounde, has stressed the need to capitalise on recycling to reduce garbage piles and to generate income.

She regretted the environmental and health risks of uncollected garbage in cities in the country and urged stakeholders to redouble efforts to implement reforms needed to improve waste management.

However, for recycling to be effective, there is a need to sensitise the public to sort and separate biodegradable from non-biodegradable waste.

Stakeholders are also brainstorming for a new model of waste management that will surmount problems such as the inaccessibility of some neighbourhoods in urban areas.