Country of miscellaneous facts: France 24 still humiliates Cameroon (video)
Country of miscellaneous facts: France 24 still humiliates Cameroon (video)
“You cannot die of starvation and die of thirst at the same time”, these words of a resident of Yaoundé illustrate the feeling of abandonment that animates the populations. For several weeks, they have been without drinking water. To get supplies, those who can afford it are forced to travel long distances to pay 1,000 CFA francs for a bottle of water. This misery of Cameroonians, France 24 tells it in a new report that has gone viral on social networks.
If Cameroonians abundantly relay this unflattering content for the country, it is partly because they are disarmed in the face of leaders who seem to have resigned. As indicated in the report, Yaoundé regularly experiences disruptions in the distribution of drinking water.
On days when water is available, its quality leaves much to be desired. “The water that comes out of the tap, you don’t have the courage to drink it. Most families are forced to have a water budget to buy a bottle at 1000 FCFA”, says a resident of Yaoundé desperately.
France 24 has been running reports for several months that expose the bad governance of the Paul Biya regime. The country is presented on this international media as the laboratory of all the various facts of the continent.
A few weeks ago, the channel’s audience certainly increased after the broadcast of a report on the marketing of a lightening drink in Cameroon. Imported by the deputy Nourane Foster, the products which circulated until then without problem on the market were withdrawn after the diffusion of this element. The Minister of Health, who seemed silent on the subject, quickly stepped up to take a series of measures to clean up the import and marketing of food and cosmetic products in Cameroon. He will be quickly cooled by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute who asked him to recall his decisions.
Camwater: when Atangana Kouna inspires his successors
During a visit by the Minister of Water and Energy on Monday, September 5, 2022, to the Akomnyada water production station, Gaston Elounfou Essomba asked CAMWATER to take all the necessary measures within a week to guarantee the production level of this station. An ultimatum which demonstrates to prove the incompetence of General Manager Gervais Bolanga to calmly fulfill the missions assigned to him.
Built in 1985 for a capacity of 100,000 m3, the Akomnyada water production station has already been renovated twice to reach the 300,000 m3 of water needed to supply the cities of Yaoundé and Mbalmayo. To this end, the State and bilateral and multilateral partners have invested enormous resources so that this production station meets the needs of the political capital and satellite towns. The observation that is made today is unimaginable: in the middle of the 21st century, populations are still suffering the hassles of water rationing through tank trucks. Lamentable for a country that gives itself the means and trusts certain incompetents to carry out missions that are utopian for them.
It must be said without flinching, a manager aware of the decadence of the performance indicators of his structure should resign if he considers the decisions he takes to boost the competitiveness of his structure to be inappropriate. The Managing Director of the Cameroon Water Utilitie Corporation (CAMWATER), Gervais Bolanga is not in his element in this structure. Beyond the very high administration today, the people are convinced of his inability to lead this state company. And the Minister for Water and Energy’s ultimatum on September 5 sounded like a disappointment.
In the space of two months, the Minister of Water and Energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba made two working visits to the Akomnyada water pumping plant, which supplies Yaoundé and its surroundings. . The situation could not be more degrading. The operational capacity of the plant has experienced a drastic drop, whose production fell from 130,000 m3 per day between January and May 2022, to touch the current 80,000 m3, is unbearable. “Indeed, the Akomnyada water production facility, which mainly supplies the populations of the city of Yaoundé and its surroundings, has experienced a drastic drop in its production for several months, thus depriving many households of the precious liquid. Said station, which normally produces at least 130,000 m3 per day, currently produces barely 80,000 m3”.
Fill in the MINEE press release. A diagnosis that was already corroborated by the general manager of CAMWATER, during another working visit to the factory site a few days earlier. Explanations which obviously did not convince the member of the government. Eloundou Essomba notes in passing that his instructions given during a previous working visit on July 1 were never respected. At each stage, the same nagging question from the MINEE: “I want to understand how and why we went from 130,000 m3 from January to May, to less than 90,000 m3 today…”. “Why last year at the same time, and with the same equipment, Did CAMWATER succeed in maintaining its production around 130,000 m3? Recurring questions from MINEE to which CAMWATER officials responded with a certain embarrassment, thus betraying a certain bad governance in the supply of drinking water to Yaoundé and its surroundings
Bad governance?
Since the defunct SNEC was placed under provisional administration on May 2, 2002, solutions have been found for the start-up of drinking water production and marketing institutions. Thus were born the CAMWATER and the Cameroonian waters. Two entities with specific missions. And for the materialization of the objectives to be achieved, everything has happened: the signing of both bilateral and multilateral agreements with national and international partners.
Multi-scale strategies have been put in place to solve the equation of water shortages in Cameroon. But only, in each context its men. Today, after more than three decades, problems of governance in the production and distribution of water in Cameroon still arise. However, this must go through the rationalization of expenditure, the securing of revenue and the improvement of transparency mechanisms around the management of portfolios in order to ensure compliance with specifications. This is not winning with the current management!
So what can Gervais Bolanga do in 8 days if for years he has been enthroned at CAMWATER he has not yet found solutions to the problems of water shortage in Cameroon and more particularly in the big cities? For Louis-Marie Kakdeu “profound institutional, legal and political reforms are necessary to guarantee a sustainable expansion of access to drinking water and sanitation in accordance with environmental and social standards.
The responsibility of the State is to set up inclusive and incentive policies to encourage private initiatives in the direction of increasing the construction of boreholes and other smaller castles that can help curb deficits at the local level, throughout the country”. Today, to justify his incompetence and his inability to peacefully fulfill his missions at CAMWATER, he has embarked on a campaign of denigration of the State.
This is to make the public understand that it is the debts of the State that weigh down the performance of CAMWATER. A parade that does not take place insofar as there are many partnership contracts with institutions with institutions that are supposed to provide solutions, but which, in the end, remain in the background. The counter-performance observed in the management of the CEO of CAMWATER is indicative of the flaws that are observed in the operationalization of the development levers of this structure.
We thus cite a passive commercial service, an after-sales service that is not functional, a lack of responsiveness in interventions in the field, generating enormous losses in the distribution circuit, the lack of a real policy to intensify campaigns connection of individuals with a view to increasing the number of subscribers and ensuring the rationalization of water distribution according to a known alternative schedule. Many other flaws, which relate to managerial shortcomings of the DG are known.
