That Yaoundé city council cannot cope with its waste is incontestable. A walk along some main streets or estates is proof that the nation’s capital is chocking in its own garbage. In fact, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government has acknowledged that the rate at which Yaounde city’s residents are generating waste exceeds its capacity to manage it. According to the Southern Cameroonian running the territory as Governor, Nasseri Paul Bea, the city is producing thousands of tonnes of solid waste daily, which Hysacam simply cannot handle.

The situation is giving the ruling CPDM officials sleepless nights as they seek ways to tackle the garbage collection problem. Most Yaoundé city residents have tales of heaps of uncollected garbage lying in their neighborhoods. This is especially true for residential estates in Obili, Etoudi, Emana, and Omnis Sport. But it also happens in some parts of the posh Bastos, as well as around Hilton Hotel.

The situation is no different on some of the streets around the presidency of the republic, where piles of garbage remain uncollected for months, limiting use of the streets and emitting a foul smell. An attempt by the government delegate to the Yaoundé Urban Council, Gilbert Tsimi Evouna to streamline waste disposal using a CPDM model, whereby the city was divided into SDF and CPDM zones to appease President Biya and make it easier to manage waste, failed.

During the experiment with the CPDM model, two pilot projects were launched and the Yaoundé City Council sought a private company, Hysacam to do the garbage collection. However, Hysacam, the French-Francophone company has failed to pick up as anticipated. Yaoundé inhabitants now know that the city council is not keen on implementing solid waste management. The Yaoundé city council officials charged with the environment have not shown strong commitment to working together to tackle the problem of solid waste management.

Waste management has become a cash cow in Cameroon which some senior CPDM officials in Yaoundé, Douala, Buea, Kumba, Maroua, Bamenda, Bafoussam are using to make millions of franc CFA. All the methods they have been introducing to improve the garbage business have failed because they are not consulting with genuine garbage collectors.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Intelligence Report