Inhabitants of Elig-Edzoa and Briquetterie neighbourhoods in Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon, squat side by side with mosquitoes, rodents, standing water, drainage systems, exposed toilets and general garbage.
By Anu Nkeze Paul
The slums in Elig-Edzoa and Briquetterie portray an area of horrid fascination where houses or what pass for houses, are constructed linked to one another with no spacing plans and ventilation, supplying breading grounds for pests and pools of domestic filth. Humans can be seen through gaping holes in the walls of their homes as various types of rodents move in and out of the residences.
The toilets are attached to the main buildings and little or no attention is paid too them in terms of cleaning and disinfection.
Most of the inhabitants of these two slums told The Green Vision that the put up with their ordeal because of poverty and unemployment. Most children in Briquettrie and Elig-Edzoa neighborhoods do not even go to school.
Some of the slum dwellers said they settled in the quarters many years ago and started up small businesses. Many admit it is very difficult to improve on the settlement or relocate because of population increase. Some blamed the poor conditions in the slums on town planners and administrators who abandoned them a long time ago and giving room for disorder to flourish and take over the quarters.
A Yaounde town planner, Tessia Perault, affirmed that the situation in some of these settlements has became a serious problem to urban planning and management.
He said the slum dwellers have a fixed mentality and have no sense of modernity.
“They resist all reform attempts. Even when they are sensitized about the importance of environmental safety and sanitation to their lives, they ignore it,” said Tessia.
He added that the city council has adopted a participatory approach to handle the problems of these settlements with the inhabitants living in the zone.
“We identify projects to improve the lives of the people living in the slums. We started with water provision and the next will be access roads,” Tessia told The Green Vision.
Some NGOs like ASSOAL are helping the councils in the Briquetterie quarter to improve the living conditions there.
