Cameroon's Capital City,Yaounde, continues to grapple with the environmental battle of poor waste disposal. What are councils proposing to tackle the problem? That's the main focus on News Inside Out
Category
🗞
NewsTranscription
00:00:00The observation is unsalvageable.
00:00:16Household solid waste is a challenge for many cities in Africa.
00:00:20In fact, the continent holds the sad record.
00:00:25Since 2015, 16 of the 25 dirtiest cities in the world are in Africa and Yaoundé isn't
00:00:33far from incorporating this arduous heat parade of dirty and stinking cities where the waste
00:00:42collection trend to continue in this direction it is heading, that is, down.
00:00:50The absence of a structured and traceable waste collection and treatment policy, the
00:00:57lack of resources aggravated by the incivility of the populations who make no effort to keep
00:01:05their daily living spaces clean, as well as the difficulties of the concessionary companies
00:01:13in discharging their duties, is rendering a putrefying condition even more nauseating.
00:01:22Garbage, garbage everywhere.
00:01:26Images of overflowing trash cans, homeless garbage scarls, ant-polluted gutters and waterways
00:01:35is the picture Yaoundé, Douala and some major cities in Cameroon are currently cutting.
00:01:44The piling up of rubbish, recurring smoke in the air, foul odours invading and perfuming
00:01:52the atmosphere, the proliferation of respiratory diseases and the garbage spillage in the big
00:02:00cities of this country have become simply perversive, with government and city as well
00:02:08as municipal authorities watching on in treacherous impotence and tacit indifference.
00:02:17Waste management, or the lack of it, has from nowhere suddenly become a nationwide cause
00:02:24for concern.
00:02:26It is easy to choke up this ugly picture to the negative extremities of underdevelopment,
00:02:33but history is telling us that Cameroon had a proper trash collection system or assemblers
00:02:41of it that is now seeming to have been overtaken by circumstances and is sagging into an abysmal
00:02:50dysfunctionality, with no one making a conscious effort yet to step forward and pick up the
00:02:59slack.
00:03:00Hello everyone and welcome to News Inside Out as we unravel the politics of trash in
00:03:07Cameroon and how the sinking national waste collection ship can be rescued from total
00:03:15wreckage.
00:03:16I am Ben Menopufong Enyaunde, don't go away.
00:03:36Our guest on News Inside Out tonight is Mr. Hyacinth Mba, Director of Norman Standard
00:03:44in Cameroon's Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development.
00:03:51From him and through him we shall be attempting to know how we got here as well as some of
00:03:59the trappings of waste collection and waste management in Cameroon today as seen from
00:04:06the perspective of the ministry like his that takes care of Cameroon's environmental
00:04:13health.
00:04:14Mr. Mba, we appreciate your presence on the program tonight.
00:04:19Thank you very much Mr. Ben for inviting me for this very interesting program.
00:04:22I think it's very important.
00:04:24As you said, I'm coming for the second time and this time you remember the head of state
00:04:30is now more concerned.
00:04:31You remember the last speech of the head of state addressing the nation on the 31st
00:04:40of December actually highlighting the issue of waste and so calling now.
00:04:45This problem is not only with the ministry of environment but now we're talking now,
00:04:49it's speaking at the level of the presidency to give you the importance that we need to
00:04:54now to bring now to the issue of waste collection in Cameroon.
00:04:58Yes, that the head of state came back on to it and that you and I were here talking about
00:05:02it over a year ago even before it caught the attention of the president of the republic
00:05:07and that we are talking about it again today.
00:05:11Just how preoccupying is the issue in a ministry like yours that is taking care of not only
00:05:17waste on all its forms but all of Cameroon's nature and environment.
00:05:22Yes, you're very right.
00:05:23You're very, very right in saying that we have a key role to play in this waste management
00:05:30stream.
00:05:31And I think the ministry is also not sleeping because we're taking a lot of actions geared
00:05:36towards that direction.
00:05:37First, I think you agree with me that last time I actually highlighted the issue of the
00:05:43ministry putting in place a system to ensure that waste can be managed.
00:05:48But maybe, before going there, maybe start getting the problem why we're getting to this
00:05:53point.
00:05:54Of course, and I'll get you to that, but let us go out there and see exactly what is playing
00:05:59out on the ground so that you can be able to discern and explain what you have obviously
00:06:04in this program tonight.
00:06:05Thank you.
00:06:19The statistics are unassailable.
00:06:23Yaoundé generates about 2,000 metric tons of waste a day.
00:06:29And what we are seeing out there now gives the impression that this may even turn out
00:06:36to be just a conservative estimate.
00:06:39Garbage has invaded all neighborhoods of the town.
00:06:44Though at varying degrees, with some of the heavily populated neighborhoods purely and
00:06:51simply overwhelmed.
00:06:53Monstrous heaps of waste are sprouting and accumulating.
00:06:58Whole streets have been swallowed.
00:07:01Roads deviated where they have not simply been blocked.
00:07:06City dwellers virtually move with their heads turned up to the skies to avoid the stench
00:07:13oozing from the decomposing and stinking rubbish piles.
00:07:18Alphonse Abongo-Ajo has been observing the wastes as they mount up here and there and
00:07:26everywhere in town and reports that even in the heart of the mess, many Yaoundé city
00:07:33dwellers have no remorse at all leaving their rubbish anywhere on the streets, especially
00:07:40now that most of the rubbish cans are all buried under the towering piles of refuse.
00:07:48Could this be Yaoundé?
00:07:51Such a bizarre question often lingers in the minds of first-timers who step foot in Cameroon's
00:07:58capital city.
00:08:00But for those who live and at least stroll around town, the question is rhetorical.
00:08:06Yaoundé is gasping for fresh breath.
00:08:08It now appears rubbish heaps easily identify Yaoundé than any other signal post.
00:08:15The city counts more than 3 million inhabitants who on a daily basis generate about 2,000
00:08:21tons of domestic waste.
00:08:23The available management mechanism seems not to be working.
00:08:27It brings mosquitoes, it bites people in the night.
00:08:31When predators are passing mosquitoes by, it gives them malaria, typhoid, all sorts of things.
00:08:36Most of the times when they throw like that, it's not going to even come to carry.
00:08:40And we are really suffering here.
00:08:41Even at times when they come to carry, they will dirty the whole road with their disposal.
00:08:46So we are really pleading on the council if they can do something else.
00:08:49In this student residential neighbourhood, we are told it is luxury when the hygiene
00:08:54and sanitation company comes around.
00:08:57We are begging that the council can carry at least twice a week.
00:09:00How many times do they carry?
00:09:02At times they come twice a month.
00:09:04The waste pot around the roadside, sometimes the road will become too narrow.
00:09:09Whereas people, when cars are moving up and down, some have to stop, one pass.
00:09:16So it causes the delay of movement of people around.
00:09:20There is even a whole business revolving around these heaps of waste.
00:09:24It is a major source of raw material for those who give a second life to rubbish.
00:09:30I pick papers, books, all books that are thrown with irons.
00:09:34So the kilo of papers is 50 and for iron is 100.
00:09:39So it's what I used to do here every day when they throw the things.
00:09:43I'm having my bath, so I used to go there.
00:09:45Anywhere I see plastic or papers, I pick and join.
00:09:48I'll come here and join with one foot back and go and sell it behind.
00:09:52This young Cameroonian has made it his stocking trade.
00:09:56I used to put paper inside one bag, iron inside one bag and plastic.
00:10:00So paper is 50, plastic is 50, iron is 100.
00:10:04They use papers to make toilet roll.
00:10:07And sometimes there are some people that used to buy carton to make these trays of eggs.
00:10:13There are some people that buy carton.
00:10:15They take some of the plastic, they melt it to arrange other things with it.
00:10:19In other areas like this one in the Younde 3 council area,
00:10:23this group of young men have taken the bull by the horn.
00:10:26They tell me their job is to get down the nooks and crannies
00:10:30and collect waste at the level of households.
00:10:34First days are set aside specifically as they are clean up days.
00:10:39When the gutters are blocked, from time to time we come and clean them.
00:10:43Those around give some tips to motivate the youth to work with eagerness.
00:10:53Our job is to manage the canalization and to clean the environment.
00:10:58The Younde 3 council has weighed in with this tricycle
00:11:02to give their initiative a more professional touch.
00:11:08The council tricycle is there to help us transport the trash.
00:11:12Given that the tricycle is in our possession in the neighborhood,
00:11:16we need to foil it and at the end of the day,
00:11:19we have to deposit some amount of money and motivate the rider.
00:11:23Some money generated from it is kept aside to maintain the tricycle so that it is sustainable.
00:11:32In the face of this conundrum,
00:11:34citizens are clamoring for more innovative and efficient solutions from public authorities.
00:11:40Government should look for a different place because it causes many problems here.
00:11:46People suffer a lot here so they need to look for a place where there is no road,
00:11:53where places are calm, they should deposit here.
00:11:58This is just one category of waste.
00:12:00Let's now switch to the waterways and talk about another.
00:12:04Plastic waste is one of the biggest waste that is generated here in the city of Younde.
00:12:09And you can see that one of the key areas that this plastic waste pass through to be disposed is the riverbeds.
00:12:17And if you look around this river, it's relatively clean.
00:12:21And when you look by the site here,
00:12:23you discover that there is a group of young people around this neighborhood who have come
00:12:27and they have picked up this plastic waste.
00:12:31There are tons and tons of them that are being generated every day across the city.
00:12:35And they are just disposed of.
00:12:37Anyhow, when it's raining,
00:12:39this plastic waste gets into the water bodies and then gets through the rivers and blocks the river passage.
00:12:45That is also one of the key causes of floods in the town of Younde.
00:12:50And so there is a group of young people here which we've been very unlucky to meet today.
00:12:57And they have taken upon themselves to gather this plastic waste and tie them up like this
00:13:02in order not to allow them to pollute the environment.
00:13:05So that is one of the key issues that they are bringing in a solution to this big problem
00:13:11that is affecting the capital city of Kampala.
00:13:13The waste management equation in Younde is truly complex and the existing formula far from solving it.
00:13:21The responsibility is collective, but experts opine sustainable solutions are not far-fetched.
00:13:28All it takes is political will.
00:13:32Bamenda, in Cameroon's northwest region, used to be one of the country's cleanest cities.
00:13:40But with the Anglophone insurgency also targeting rubbish cans and collection,
00:13:47the city now has a garbage problem.
00:13:50The town never used to look as bad as it is nowadays.
00:13:55Residents are virtually sinking in trash, a situation that got heightened
00:14:02when separatists declared war on the city's garbage collection company.
00:14:08This, however, does not inhibit them from fathoming the good old days
00:14:15and thinking that something ought to be done, and urgently too,
00:14:20irrespective of the current trials and tribulations.
00:14:25Mersi Kosi has been contemplating the waste lock-jam up in Bamenda
00:14:32and came away on the note that despite all the efforts by the city councils
00:14:38and the subdivisional municipalities,
00:14:41the efforts are still far from bailing the town out of its current garbage hold-up.
00:14:48Apart from the effect this has on the aesthetic value of the area,
00:14:54it soon heaps up and starts producing a foul smell.
00:14:58In addition, these waste management methods have biodegradable materials
00:15:05start decaying and decomposing under abnormal, unhealthy and uncontrolled conditions.
00:15:11On the streets of Bamenda, residents sound quite enlightened
00:15:15about the importance of sorting waste.
00:15:19I feel so bad and uncomfortable being at my workshop
00:15:24and opposite is where they deposit it.
00:15:27So for me, for us to try to reduce the way we deposit it,
00:15:33things like papers, plastics at least should try and burn those ones off
00:15:39so that at least the deaths will not be as much as this.
00:15:44But in reality, this is what you get.
00:15:47Overflowing dumpsites with a chaotic jumble of kitchen waste, plastic and other hazardous waste.
00:15:55This is the final destination of most of what is produced as waste
00:16:00within the city of Bamenda and its environs.
00:16:03Here one can find waste of every kind produced by households and institutions.
00:16:09The site soon become breeding ground for mosquitoes and a banquet table for stray animals.
00:16:17Since last week, see today, they have not come to clean up again.
00:16:23But at least, what I'm happy with is that every week they do pass.
00:16:28So I'm sure this week they will also pass and clean the place up.
00:16:31The notion of a cyclic economy, which is a model of production and consumption involving sharing,
00:16:39leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products
00:16:47as long as possible to reduce waste to a minimum has become popular here.
00:16:53The waste management organizations collect the waste and have them dumped here
00:16:59without any proper procedure to treat or have them sorted out before being disposed of.
00:17:05We have the units that actually go to the field with the trucks and tricycles
00:17:11to collect the waste, dump it where they are dumped,
00:17:15taken to the waste disposal site up by the Bambli Hills there.
00:17:23Then the other part of them remains in the recycling unit
00:17:30where the waste that is collected from the various spots gets to the dump site,
00:17:37is sorted out there on the dump site.
00:17:40We get out leather and it goes to its own position.
00:17:46Metal goes to its own position.
00:17:48Cans go to their own position.
00:17:50Bottles have their own place.
00:17:52The waste itself, the plastic, has its own way to go.
00:17:57Then household waste has its own way to go.
00:18:01The Tuba Council has often been branded as a modern municipality in waste management
00:18:07with a strategy to recycle plastic bottles produced in huge quantities
00:18:13by the largely student population of the area.
00:18:16However, the response from the public has not been satisfactory
00:18:21according to the municipal authority who still fault them
00:18:25for the indiscriminate dumping of waste despite the allocation of trash cans and dump sites.
00:18:32I sent out 60 20 litre cans, both painted green and red.
00:18:41Shared to all the fundums.
00:18:45It's labelled on the green one household waste.
00:18:48On the other container it's labelled solid waste.
00:18:53The public shouldn't come out and take a lot of time.
00:18:55We've been taking time to sanitise them.
00:18:57But it is not the case.
00:18:59Look at this plastic bottle basket.
00:19:01Go there and you see plastic pool on the ground.
00:19:04Why not just drop it inside the container?
00:19:07You go where two containers are standing, they'll come and throw the waste on the ground.
00:19:10It's a long process and we don't need to get reluctant.
00:19:14We have to keep on sanitising, moving gradually until we get it.
00:19:20Old habits, the sea, die hard.
00:19:23And the method of managing waste in the city of Bamenda and its environs is a glaring example.
00:19:30Civil society organisations in the town, raising awareness on the practice,
00:19:35identify a huge gap between sensitising the people on the advantages of properly handling waste
00:19:43generated across different levels and the understanding people have of the topic.
00:19:49Apart from the effect this has on the aesthetic value of the area,
00:19:54it soon heaps up and starts producing a foul smell.
00:19:58In addition, these waste management methods have biodegradable materials
00:20:04start decaying and decomposing under abnormal, unhealthy and uncontrolled conditions.
00:20:11We quickly identify the challenges.
00:20:13At individual levels, household levels, you could see a myriad of challenges.
00:20:18One of the first key challenges is that there is no awareness about the fact that
00:20:25each person generates waste, but in the end we have large wastes that come from small, small sources.
00:20:33So when each person generates waste, the idea is almost like
00:20:38they don't really see the big picture of the waste problem,
00:20:41they only see the small waste they have generated.
00:20:44They are not seeing that that small waste is going to lead to a very large waste problem.
00:20:50There are no large industries here as such industrial waste is hard to come by.
00:20:56Some people capitalise on this.
00:20:58However, it does not exempt the town from suffering from the effects of a polluted atmosphere
00:21:06caused by poor waste management.
00:21:09The city council, which is the main institution in charge of hygiene and sanitation,
00:21:15acknowledge the void that exists in the waste management chain.
00:21:20The solid waste, in terms of metals, they gather and they resell them
00:21:25and it is being sent to other factories where they could be recycled.
00:21:29The other waste which is produced from our homes,
00:21:33which we do not have a means to recycle, is the plastics and the bottles.
00:21:42We have attended seminars with people who were looking to see if they can buy bottles for the moment.
00:21:54What we are about to establish is, if we ask the people of Bamenda to come and sell their bottles,
00:22:00will the people who recycle bottles collect them so that we don't end up with a pile of bottles
00:22:06with the fake promise that you bring our bottles, they'll give you something
00:22:10and then when they gather the bottles, the company to carry are not there.
00:22:16We are making efforts to that effect.
00:22:18There have been promises made of partnerships to be signed between the Bamenda City Council
00:22:24and some renowned companies in industrial towns in Cameroon,
00:22:28whose job descriptions involve the reduction of plastic and other non-biodegradable waste.
00:22:35But how soon this is going to be remains a billion-dollar question.
00:22:40Until what's put to action, the beautiful literature and plans for a proper waste management scheme in Bamenda
00:22:48remain just another campaign manifesto.
00:23:18Nothing seems to be happening on the ground.
00:23:20Thank you very much, Ben. I'm happy that I've actually painted a picture of what's happening in Cameroon.
00:23:26But if you look at the four cities that we visited, some issues come out very clear.
00:23:33I think one of the issues that we see very clear is the lack of collection and transportation means for all the council area.
00:23:40It's very clear. We've seen they have means.
00:23:43Collection and transportation?
00:23:44Collection of this waste and transportation of this waste to either a landfill or whatever, that's a problem.
00:23:50Now we have the pile. That's an issue.
00:23:52They have adequate technology to ensure that this waste, if it is collected, can be given a different meaning, or call it valorized.
00:24:00Maybe we'll come to a time when we'll talk about circular economy.
00:24:02But we don't have this problem.
00:24:05The third aspect we see is the accurate problem of finance.
00:24:09Most of the councils, they have a big issue of financing to ensure that the waste is collected.
00:24:16I will not talk about, call it manpower, because if you say to the 20,000 people, they'll come, they'll collect.
00:24:24But do we pay them? How do we pay them?
00:24:27And so my problem starts from that aspect.
00:24:30And then an issue that we see around is kind of this, you see, the trend of waste we see now.
00:24:37We have, the climate has changed.
00:24:39If you talk about some 20 years ago, you're not talking about plastic, you're talking right now.
00:24:44So the attitude has changed.
00:24:46We have now more different means of different types of plastic or attitude that we use.
00:24:52Maybe the waste now is not valid based on our attitude.
00:24:55Because in this case, we have now more plastic in what we consume in our household waste.
00:25:01Now, another aspect that comes out very clear in this issue, you see now, the council is working.
00:25:08The city council is working.
00:25:10Now we have the government institutions that are coming out.
00:25:12Now this legal principle, I mean, to actually direct who to take what,
00:25:17I think that's an issue where the president probably came back on this issue.
00:25:21That what is happening, the way it should be handled.
00:25:24You may have the means, you may have the finances,
00:25:27but the people, this dysfunction may come from the competition or competencies that's transferred to other councils
00:25:34or most of the ministries.
00:25:38So I think that's why we start having this issue now.
00:25:42Now, I still go back on, I think some of the actions give some way of what they are trying to see.
00:25:49But the actual problem still stays.
00:25:52We still have these garbages still there.
00:25:55One issue that I want to insist again is that our attitudes.
00:25:59We create unnecessary or illegal dump sites.
00:26:04You saw what the children, before today have a small waste.
00:26:11Before you know it, before maybe the evening, it becomes a huge dump.
00:26:15And even if the executive can decide to put that site or whatever,
00:26:19whoever these concessionaries may decide to put.
00:26:23By the time it comes, everything is piled.
00:26:25And at the time of piling, they decide not even to put in that trash can.
00:26:29It's done.
00:26:30So you see, when you analyze all of these challenges,
00:26:33that's where you start asking, where can we go to?
00:26:37Tell me, what is the responsibility of your ministry, the Ministry of Environment,
00:26:42in the whole picture of garbage collection first?
00:26:46Right, I will start with the Framework Law.
00:26:49The Framework Law of 1996.
00:26:52Actually, it's one of the documents that is really helping most of maybe the cancers as well.
00:26:57And that document, the Framework Law on Management of Waste,
00:27:00or Management of Environmental Management,
00:27:02says that, actually in Article 46,
00:27:06says that the waste management is attributed to the council.
00:27:11The council needs to ensure the waste, the night dump,
00:27:15and remove this dump.
00:27:18And this article is further compounded by the attribution of competencies to councils
00:27:27by the signing of the 2019 Act to the councils,
00:27:34giving competencies now more powers to handle.
00:27:37Now you see, the whole genre remains at the level of the council.
00:27:40But the Ministry of Environment, let me come back.
00:27:42What is the role of the Ministry of Environment in this issue?
00:27:45If you go in that text, the law now has some ministerial text.
00:27:51Actually, the text now we apply is the text on recycling,
00:27:54that is the 2012 text decree,
00:27:58actually assigning who to get into waste management.
00:28:01It tells you that any waste vessel must be sorted.
00:28:05Now, any person getting into the waste sector needs to have a permit
00:28:09before you, so they can identify you.
00:28:12Thirdly, councils should ensure that they make,
00:28:16they bring out the waste, council waste management plan,
00:28:20or inter-council waste management plan.
00:28:23When you have a waste management plan, people will see exactly what is happening.
00:28:27If the council has a clear waste management plan, they will see what is happening.
00:28:31So this is what the Ministry of Environment is doing.
00:28:33So right now the Ministry of Environment is, in this case now,
00:28:36promote the idea of proposing a guide,
00:28:39so that councils can use this to produce a waste management plan.
00:28:43We are not ending there.
00:28:45One of the issues I was seeing, I think recently you heard,
00:28:48the Ministry of Environment coming out with another policy.
00:28:51In 2016, we had the first National Forum on Waste.
00:28:56And in this Forum on Waste, in 2016,
00:29:00actually came out with two key recommendations.
00:29:04That one, Cameroon should come out with a national waste exchange,
00:29:12national waste exchange.
00:29:15And secondly, they should revise the national waste strategy.
00:29:18Now, you know, it's taken us quite some time.
00:29:21Why? Why is it delaying?
00:29:23Well, first of all, the actors, the willingness was there from when we started,
00:29:272009, 2016 till now, you see the amount of time.
00:29:32Each time we bring, at times, not enough funds to start off.
00:29:37And now we need to convince the Prime Minister and other ministerial government
00:29:42to see the need to come out with this national waste exchange.
00:29:46What is the essence?
00:29:48My waste that I'm producing becomes your primary sources.
00:29:51So we are talking about secularity now in the issue of waste.
00:29:54So that's exactly what they're promoting.
00:29:57And we say now, it's taking long.
00:29:59Now, how is that waste exchange that you're talking about, that's going to be put in place,
00:30:02how is it going to change the picture?
00:30:04Yeah, it becomes, how is it going to change the picture?
00:30:07First of all, we need now people, actionaries, or we call it shareholders,
00:30:10to take this as a responsibility, as a need,
00:30:16that are having a share in this business.
00:30:21Call it as a business.
00:30:22Now, when you put in that share now,
00:30:24Now, they'll pay me now.
00:30:26If I have now my waste now, owner of the waste now,
00:30:29I can sell now the waste to somebody who needs the waste.
00:30:31The problem that we're having here is the problem of information.
00:30:33Information sharing.
00:30:34I like the way you put it. You own your waste.
00:30:36So waste becomes, it has value and property.
00:30:39You create now, you create now value for your waste.
00:30:41And that's the issue we want to bring now with the household.
00:30:44Now working with the councils, the councils see now the waste that they're having
00:30:46at the level of the municipality, to make it as a way they can make money from it.
00:30:50But Cameroonians don't seem to understand that there is cash in that trash.
00:30:54That's what we're talking about. There's wealth in waste.
00:30:56So what we are actually seeing is the idea behind this boost,
00:31:01or call it the National Waste Exchange,
00:31:03that I can get my waste, now make exchange with you.
00:31:06Now, the partners that are ready to come in,
00:31:09they need to have a legal issue now to put them in place,
00:31:12so they have the vision, how am I going to, how am I going to benefit.
00:31:17We've actually carried a study in this mechanism, and we've seen that it's very profitable.
00:31:21The government will not spend any dime.
00:31:23In the first three years, it will be very, very, very feasible.
00:31:27And it will become now profitable,
00:31:29that we can make now a way now to boost the sector of waste.
00:31:32Are you talking about there is a void,
00:31:34the legal void in putting those type of mechanisms in place?
00:31:39Yeah, we are moving towards, because I think we need to prepare,
00:31:42and then now bring out the legal minds to now draft something,
00:31:45so that now we cannot see where we are moving.
00:31:47You know, the issue of secularity is so recent,
00:31:50and so we need now to bring on the law now to respect,
00:31:53move towards the direction that we can see now,
00:31:55that what we have becomes a problem.
00:31:57Because if at all, when, if I tell you that my waste, I'm selling it,
00:32:00I will not just leave it like that.
00:32:02And then in this case, then the house owner will see now the importance of keeping the waste,
00:32:05or how to do with the waste.
00:32:07Until we come to such a point where there will be wage scarcity.
00:32:10Well, no, because it can never be.
00:32:12Let me use the case of Yaounde.
00:32:16In the report that you presented,
00:32:19we are producing about 2,000 tons of waste every day.
00:32:26But the contract that Hisakawa has,
00:32:29shows that they are supposed to eliminate 1,000 tons.
00:32:33You see now 50.
00:32:35It's not, where do we go with 50?
00:32:37So you see the problem of waste remains.
00:32:40That's an issue now.
00:32:41So actually you're saying Hisakawa is working,
00:32:43but they are not doing, their work is not good enough,
00:32:45they cannot meet the challenge of the ground.
00:32:47Because the contract that he signed with the state,
00:32:49because the state pays on what prerata or what he has.
00:32:51But they can't revalorize it and go to meet the reality of the ground.
00:32:55Of course, but it was not within the prescription of the text,
00:32:58or prescription of the contract signed between Hisakawa and Kansai.
00:33:02They are the actors on the ground.
00:33:04Seeing that the situation has gone past where they were,
00:33:06and it is impacting their own job negatively.
00:33:09It is in their interest to move to the people and say,
00:33:12hey we came in for this, but now this is what we have on the ground.
00:33:15Can we please step up?
00:33:16Why is that not taking place?
00:33:18Right, you know anything like contracts, the legal document,
00:33:22I will not go against the contract, certainly.
00:33:24But I will know they want to stay within the contract.
00:33:26Maybe it may have been that project within them.
00:33:28But my point is now these actors that are in the field,
00:33:31and that we see have now waste on them.
00:33:34The question still remains, why do we see,
00:33:36even though we have all this, maybe something,
00:33:39seemingly solutions to the waste, but still having waste.
00:33:42If you come back to the issue, it is a problem of finance.
00:33:47People need to go there and collect,
00:33:51and need to remove the waste that we have.
00:33:53If the council is actually giving enough money to carry out waste,
00:33:57it will be done.
00:33:58Or if the council can come out with a good model,
00:34:02to make sure that the waste generated could be sold.
00:34:06Meaning they are identifying more actors in the field.
00:34:09Now they need to help to identify actors,
00:34:11those who are specialized in particular waste.
00:34:14You just listen to what the city mayor of Bamenda said.
00:34:20Now people who come in maybe for plastic,
00:34:23they come now for cans, come now for bottles,
00:34:26or come maybe for scrap iron.
00:34:30Now people may come to other emerging waste that are coming,
00:34:33like electrical, electronic waste.
00:34:35Now we have these guys now well-structured, well-placed,
00:34:38follow up.
00:34:40Now you see that their waste now become useful.
00:34:42And because the problem we still have again is that,
00:34:45even though you may help the household to collect this waste,
00:34:49maybe segregate or sort the waste,
00:34:51but when it comes out, how is it collected?
00:34:53Everything lumped in one.
00:34:55So it doesn't help people.
00:34:57So if you are saying that the people that are having the contract
00:35:00with either the council or whoever they are making contract,
00:35:02it will help specify that what are you taking.
00:35:05Is it scrap?
00:35:07Is it paper?
00:35:09Or is it plastics?
00:35:12In this case now, when you help the household separate,
00:35:16and then you come, we are separate containers now,
00:35:18you see the issue of dumping becomes a bit different.
00:35:20Now because I have the issue of mix,
00:35:22I want to know there are so many actors in the field
00:35:24that want to even come for biodegradable waste,
00:35:27but they cannot come because everything is lumped.
00:35:30You want to do something, everything is lumped.
00:35:32So how do we come in?
00:35:34So we think that the issue still comes with
00:35:38how we go back on a drawing board in place,
00:35:42and sort out that these various stakeholders,
00:35:45this is what you should do,
00:35:47this is what you should do, and your work ends here.
00:35:50You start here and ends here.
00:35:52When these clear-cut boundaries are made,
00:35:56and ensure that various administrations
00:35:58and various municipalities know what they should do,
00:36:00the issue of waste becomes easy.
00:36:02It becomes easier for the administration as well to follow up.
00:36:06Because I think, I equally believe,
00:36:10that one of the issues with CDPI because they follow up,
00:36:12ah whoop, no one cares.
00:36:14If at all I give you a contract,
00:36:16and then I don't ensure that you follow up the contract,
00:36:18and then maybe give some kind of sanctions,
00:36:20you will remain the same.
00:36:22Why other countries in Africa are fine,
00:36:24and we have the problem here?
00:36:26Is that discipline you are asking?
00:36:28We need to be disciplined, we have a contract,
00:36:30we respect the terms and conditions of the contract,
00:36:32and we go with the terms and conditions.
00:36:34And in that case now, we can now move ahead
00:36:36and do something very well.
00:36:38Because if you issue and there is no follow-up,
00:36:40and there is no sanction behind,
00:36:42everything stays normal, good.
00:36:44And the president might say anything,
00:36:46go on, I'm in the same spot.
00:36:48Since you talked about many actors
00:36:50involved in this waste management chain,
00:36:52do you have a platform
00:36:54where all of you,
00:36:56the major actors, you sit
00:36:58so that you can harmonise strategies
00:37:00and approaches so we can
00:37:02address Cameroon's
00:37:04waste management, waste collection,
00:37:06management and treatment
00:37:08in a very, very professional manner
00:37:10that will free our cities
00:37:12from the current embarrassment?
00:37:14I think that's a big role
00:37:16I think that's a big role
00:37:18that the prime minister should take
00:37:20to federate and show the various actors
00:37:22to come in.
00:37:24Because if you give a platform,
00:37:26if I look at my organic land, my organic land says
00:37:28I need to do this. The one of
00:37:30urban development housing says about the same thing
00:37:32I'm doing. That of maybe water and energy
00:37:34says one and the same thing.
00:37:36So you see now that I have this
00:37:38overlap of functions,
00:37:40and that's a big problem.
00:37:42Now who wants to give up his function
00:37:44because of the other one? That's another problem, issue.
00:37:46Understand? So that's why you
00:37:48see, but in most cities or in most
00:37:50countries in the world, there's
00:37:52an administration that takes care.
00:37:54And that's why the issue, we stay in the issue
00:37:56of household waste.
00:37:58That aspect has been given to the council
00:38:00and now they have to work with Mindéville.
00:38:02Mindéville is the, as they call it,
00:38:04Toutain, to ensure that it works.
00:38:06The other administration, we come in to support.
00:38:08We propose, like,
00:38:10we ask what's the role of Mindéville
00:38:12We have now proposed now, like, the guides
00:38:14and the laws, and then we work with
00:38:16local council. That's only on household.
00:38:18Now local council now work with Mindéville
00:38:20and the structure.
00:38:22Once a, we call it
00:38:24once this, each council has
00:38:26a council waste management plan
00:38:28as it is, it's respected.
00:38:30Now, how is it done?
00:38:32Who validates the waste management plan?
00:38:34And how is the follow-up of it?
00:38:36In this case now, we see that each time
00:38:38there's kind of evaluation of the
00:38:40plan that we have.
00:38:42We tell, okay, in this case, for two years
00:38:44or for one year, this is a problem we're noticing.
00:38:46Or the contract we signed with this company
00:38:48is not working very well because this is not working.
00:38:50So we think now when we gather all of this
00:38:52information together
00:38:54or these actors together
00:38:56and we specify
00:38:58a function, now we
00:39:00can maybe move ahead
00:39:02but all that problem remains.
00:39:04Okay.
00:39:06We're coming back to it in Istanbul
00:39:08and it is news inside out
00:39:10on the Cameroon Radio Television.
00:39:12Our guest in the studio is
00:39:14Mr. Hasimbo.
00:39:16He's the director of norms and standards
00:39:18in Cameroon's
00:39:20Ministry of Environment.
00:39:22Now, we've been talking about council
00:39:24and we should come to you on the Cameroon's
00:39:26political capital
00:39:28with a city council
00:39:30of its own
00:39:32and six sub-divisional councils
00:39:34and it is yet
00:39:36to settle on the proper
00:39:38formula with which to
00:39:40tackle the current garbage
00:39:42puzzle, threatening
00:39:44to convert the capital of
00:39:46Cameroon to a slough
00:39:48of disband.
00:39:50With the rapid
00:39:52rates of urbanization
00:39:54and constant rise in
00:39:56population of the city,
00:39:58the need to rethink and redesign
00:40:00a garbage collection
00:40:02and treatment policy
00:40:04that can not only absorb
00:40:06the huge volumes of
00:40:08waste produced here daily
00:40:10but which ensures
00:40:12something so that
00:40:14in the long run,
00:40:16trash can become cash
00:40:18in this country is
00:40:20very critical.
00:40:22Reason why Mokwele Prince Wiladuma
00:40:24is sticking his head
00:40:26for this and he says
00:40:28in an increase, it will
00:40:30increase efficient
00:40:32and effective waste
00:40:34management ecosystems
00:40:36in the nation's capital
00:40:38making it crucial so that
00:40:40results can be forthcoming.
00:40:42Prince Wiladuma
00:40:44with a round of what
00:40:46the city council of Yaounde
00:40:48and its subsidiary councillors
00:40:50are doing
00:40:52to attack waste.
00:40:54Household
00:40:56waste not in short supply in
00:40:58Yaounde, no.
00:41:00A source of roadside smell,
00:41:02heap of attraction to wanton flies
00:41:04and the most unwanted guest
00:41:06to any clean city
00:41:08endeavour finds a seat
00:41:10in Cameroon's seat of administration.
00:41:12Household waste, a source
00:41:14of household livelihood
00:41:16wasted here.
00:41:18We associate the population.
00:41:20We try sometimes to
00:41:22work with population
00:41:24so that when they clean their quarter
00:41:26we can give them
00:41:28small cars, small pickups
00:41:30in order to collect the waste
00:41:32and bring it to Izakam
00:41:34in Kolfulu
00:41:36where the waste is
00:41:38brought by different
00:41:40trucks of Izakam. But normally
00:41:42it's not our competence.
00:41:44That's why we are limited. The problem is that
00:41:46we are limited. Normally
00:41:48the subsidiary councillors
00:41:50in the big cities of Yaounde
00:41:52we should have the competence
00:41:54to manage our own waste.
00:41:56But actually we cannot
00:41:58because we are not allowed
00:42:00by different laws,
00:42:02by different texts.
00:42:04That's why we think that a text should be revised.
00:42:06The laws should be revised
00:42:08in order to allow
00:42:10to municipalities,
00:42:12to subsidiary councils to manage
00:42:14their own waste. Because if
00:42:16in Yaounde 5 we had
00:42:18this competence,
00:42:20normally actually we should have
00:42:22been creating our own
00:42:24discharge.
00:42:26That one where the waste is
00:42:28collected. And we
00:42:30have normally partners
00:42:32who are proposing to work with us
00:42:34at the international level
00:42:36how we can manage
00:42:38our own waste, how can we transform
00:42:40our own waste.
00:42:42Because in some corners
00:42:44in the world, even in
00:42:46Africa, the waste is
00:42:48a source of revenues. Because
00:42:50it's bringing money to different
00:42:52municipalities. But here in Cameroon
00:42:54it's not possible.
00:42:56Inasmuch as this knowledge
00:42:58is not the preserve of the mayor of Yaounde 5,
00:43:00he and his colleagues
00:43:02of the other 5 subdivisional councils
00:43:04are said to be harmed
00:43:06by restricting laws.
00:43:08The problem is known.
00:43:10The problem is known.
00:43:12So it's not
00:43:14a problem of consultation between
00:43:16the mayor of Yaounde 5 and the city mayor.
00:43:18It's a national
00:43:20problem because
00:43:22when we are calling for
00:43:24the revising of text,
00:43:26of laws, you should understand
00:43:28that it's a national problem.
00:43:30It's a national problem.
00:43:32So national authority
00:43:34should take this problem in
00:43:36hands and solve it.
00:43:38The garbage notwithstanding,
00:43:40Yaounde City Council's parade
00:43:42heaps of debt from the
00:43:44center. Clearing Yaounde
00:43:46of this public eyesore
00:43:48is the overriding goal of all the
00:43:50councils. How disposal
00:43:52or transformation is conducted
00:43:54is still out of reach
00:43:56to the public eye.
00:43:58Meanwhile, a council sharing
00:44:00its municipal space with the
00:44:02presidency of the republic will not
00:44:04tarry on the competent saga.
00:44:06We have the obligation
00:44:08to keep
00:44:10our town clean because
00:44:12all the hosts
00:44:14of the president
00:44:16arrive
00:44:18in Cameroon
00:44:20when
00:44:22they go to the
00:44:24municipality palace.
00:44:26It's important
00:44:28for us to keep clean
00:44:30our town.
00:44:32In our municipality, we have
00:44:34some organization.
00:44:36We call them CODEL.
00:44:38Local Organization for
00:44:40Development. We create
00:44:42this organization
00:44:44with the
00:44:46volunteers, with the population of
00:44:48Yaounde too.
00:44:50Every week,
00:44:52on Wednesday,
00:44:54all these volunteers,
00:44:56all this population help
00:44:58the municipality
00:45:00walking in the
00:45:02road, move the waste
00:45:04and debt.
00:45:06We know that
00:45:08it's not easy for them,
00:45:10but the municipality
00:45:12help them with
00:45:14some materials,
00:45:16with some...
00:45:18any way they can use
00:45:20to move
00:45:22debt.
00:45:24We can say Wednesday, keep Yaounde too clean.
00:45:26Yes, we have a concept, Yaounde too,
00:45:28clean town
00:45:30and every
00:45:32Wednesday, all this population,
00:45:34women, youth
00:45:36and men walk
00:45:38around and through
00:45:40the road.
00:45:42To Mayor Yannick Ayissi, it is a collective
00:45:44exercise spearheaded by his
00:45:46council's financial commitment.
00:45:48About 7 or
00:45:506 percent of the budget,
00:45:52about 50
00:45:54million
00:45:56is allocated to
00:45:58sustain
00:46:00the
00:46:02clean
00:46:04of the city.
00:46:06It's not so far,
00:46:08but we try
00:46:10with this
00:46:12little amount,
00:46:14but the
00:46:16most important is
00:46:18our capacity
00:46:20to walk
00:46:22every day to sensitize
00:46:24the population. It's the most important.
00:46:26You can have all the money of the world
00:46:28if the population
00:46:30are not sensitized.
00:46:32If they are not accompanied,
00:46:34our movement will be very
00:46:36bad for everybody.
00:46:38We need the participation of the population
00:46:40because if in the morning
00:46:42we walk, we move the dead
00:46:44and in the afternoon the population
00:46:46come and put that,
00:46:48it's not good for us.
00:46:50The most important is to sensitize the population.
00:46:52We need the accompaniment
00:46:54of this population
00:46:56to keep our town
00:46:58clean. There is many
00:47:00exploitation,
00:47:02the garage,
00:47:04some women
00:47:06who market,
00:47:08we want them
00:47:10to be sensitized
00:47:12and to work in good
00:47:16environment.
00:47:18Transformational source of revenue
00:47:20or literal debt.
00:47:22What leads us, Yaounde Street
00:47:24is equally a government
00:47:26concern. We receive
00:47:28some support. We have the transfer
00:47:30credit of the government
00:47:32and we have the
00:47:34drug assist
00:47:36and there is some support,
00:47:38material support from Ministry
00:47:40of Urban Development.
00:47:42They have some support from this ministry
00:47:44to work and to
00:47:46keep our clean,
00:47:48our city clean.
00:47:50Otherwise, Yaounde's waste
00:47:52will continue to worry and wallow
00:47:54in the deadlock
00:47:56of who does what.
00:47:58Environmentalist
00:48:00and aquatic life experts
00:48:02are categorical on this.
00:48:04Waste has a huge impact
00:48:06on the environment, on water
00:48:08and particularly on
00:48:10aquatic systems.
00:48:12They even caution that disposing
00:48:14of fresh water sources
00:48:16in the wrong way
00:48:18greatly affects the health
00:48:20of marine dwellers.
00:48:22Just as bad
00:48:24as the practice of dumping
00:48:26materials into aquatic
00:48:28ecosystems which not only
00:48:30lead to pollution but
00:48:32which directly and indirectly
00:48:34poses a danger
00:48:36to all life forms.
00:48:38Come to think of it,
00:48:40an awful lot
00:48:42of the trash that Yaounde
00:48:44gushes out per day
00:48:46either directly or indirectly
00:48:48find themselves
00:48:50in rivers and streams
00:48:52as statistics now show
00:48:54that close to 13 million
00:48:56metric tons of plastic
00:48:58end in the ocean every year
00:49:00which is the equivalent
00:49:02of truckloads of
00:49:04rubbish that would have been
00:49:06poorly disposed of
00:49:08every minute.
00:49:10Beatrice Losamba navigated
00:49:12from upstream to downstream
00:49:14to see what damage
00:49:16poor waste management
00:49:18is causing aquatic and
00:49:20marine life
00:49:22and wove this package
00:49:24for News Inside Out.
00:49:28The ugly picture
00:49:30of water pollution.
00:49:32The monster called pollution
00:49:34destroying the beauty and
00:49:36enjoyment of our waterways
00:49:38and this goes a long way.
00:49:40The economic, health and environmental
00:49:42impacts are enormous.
00:49:46Trash blown off garbage
00:49:48containers, trucks and landfills,
00:49:50litter, debris from
00:49:52commercial and industrial facilities
00:49:54end up as marine debris.
00:49:56Urban runoff is said
00:49:58to represent the largest source
00:50:00of marine debris.
00:50:02Prominent among this waste is
00:50:04plastic bags.
00:50:06As strong as the waves tried
00:50:08they failed to push them out.
00:50:10The thing with plastics is that
00:50:12they do not disintegrate
00:50:14or decompose easily.
00:50:16They can stay in nature
00:50:18for thousands of years
00:50:20and plastics also
00:50:22tend to be very light
00:50:24which means that they can be easily
00:50:26moved by water and by
00:50:28sea and by wind.
00:50:30It depends on what direction
00:50:32the waves are moving. There are some
00:50:34coastal areas that are depositional
00:50:36that the waste comes on shore
00:50:38but there are some
00:50:40coastal areas that by their very nature
00:50:42are erosional which means that
00:50:44the wave is moving
00:50:46offshore.
00:50:48If the waste
00:50:50is coming on shore
00:50:52the advantage is that
00:50:54it can be easily removed
00:50:56from the ocean
00:50:58and we've seen efforts around the world
00:51:00to try to remove some of this waste
00:51:02from the ocean. But if
00:51:04the waves are such that are taking
00:51:06them offshore, it could
00:51:08get to places that we will be unable
00:51:10to reach to remove. And sometimes
00:51:12when these plastics are filled
00:51:14with water, they also sink
00:51:16to the bottom of the ocean and they become
00:51:18harder and harder to take out of the ocean.
00:51:20So the best thing would be
00:51:22not to have them in the ocean
00:51:24in the first place. The quantity
00:51:26of waste is said to be increasing
00:51:28in oceans worldwide.
00:51:30Researchers documented
00:51:32an overwhelming increase in
00:51:34plastic waste with pieces
00:51:36of them seen outnumbering
00:51:38plankton on the surface of the ocean
00:51:40and entangling coral reefs.
00:51:42There are more than 12 million
00:51:44tons of plastic that
00:51:46finds their way into the ocean
00:51:48every single year.
00:51:50And that by 2050
00:51:52there could be more plastic
00:51:54in the ocean than fish.
00:51:56Our waste are not
00:51:58properly managed.
00:52:00Our household waste are not properly managed.
00:52:02They can end up into the
00:52:04river and then into the sea.
00:52:06And the way that happens
00:52:08is when
00:52:10we dispose our
00:52:12plastic waste for example
00:52:14on the road
00:52:16and when it rains
00:52:18those plastics are drained
00:52:20in the gutters or the drainage
00:52:22and from there they will go
00:52:24into the small
00:52:26streams and then from the
00:52:28streams it will go into the
00:52:30river and from the river it will
00:52:32go into the sea.
00:52:34And this is not without consequences.
00:52:36Plastic debris injures
00:52:38and kills fish,
00:52:40seabirds and marine mammals
00:52:42impacting 267
00:52:44species of them.
00:52:46The impact includes
00:52:48fatalities of marine life
00:52:50and threats to the habitats they depend
00:52:52on. The dangers of plastic
00:52:54waste start immediately
00:52:56they have been dropped.
00:52:58The first thing you notice is that
00:53:00they block up all the
00:53:02canals and drainage systems within
00:53:04the city and that results in flood.
00:53:06If they manage to
00:53:08make it into the subsoil
00:53:10they also become
00:53:12a hazard to living organisms
00:53:14on the ground. The worms
00:53:16and the other organisms that
00:53:18are supposed to work
00:53:20to break down organic material
00:53:22to create fertile
00:53:24soil are unable to operate
00:53:26adequately. And they can
00:53:28also be a hindrance to the
00:53:30free circulation of
00:53:32manure and water
00:53:34subsoil.
00:53:36But the greatest impact that
00:53:38we have seen is in the ocean.
00:53:40Because once the plastics
00:53:42reach the ocean
00:53:44because they cannot be
00:53:46disintegrated and they are there almost
00:53:48permanently, the first thing they
00:53:50do is that they are likely
00:53:52to destroy breeding grounds
00:53:54for marine life.
00:53:56Now if you have
00:53:58a large amount of plastics
00:54:00floating over the ocean, what is
00:54:02happening is that you are also blocking
00:54:04sun rays from getting to the
00:54:06bottom of the ocean, which means that
00:54:08marine life that
00:54:10requires sunshine to thrive
00:54:12is not getting enough sunshine.
00:54:14You also have a
00:54:16situation where marine
00:54:18life, fish and other marine
00:54:20life, consume
00:54:22these plastics and this can
00:54:24lead to all kinds of hazards
00:54:26for them. In fact,
00:54:28there are stories of people who
00:54:30have caught fish and found
00:54:32pieces of plastic bottles
00:54:34ingested by this fish
00:54:36and a lot of these fish die.
00:54:38Now if you disrupt the
00:54:40ability of fish to
00:54:42reproduce, you are not only killing
00:54:44the fish
00:54:46that is already there, you are preventing
00:54:48the fish from multiplying as well.
00:54:50So you see there is a long-term impact
00:54:52on fish and marine
00:54:54life population as a result of this.
00:54:56But there are also impacts on
00:54:58things like coral reefs,
00:55:00which are features
00:55:02found
00:55:06in marine ecosystems
00:55:08that are very useful
00:55:10both in terms of
00:55:12the reproduction and the
00:55:14feeding of wildlife.
00:55:16And if you destroy these
00:55:18coral reefs, you are also
00:55:20directly affecting
00:55:22the population of marine wildlife.
00:55:26A glaring example often cited
00:55:28is a Californian gray whale
00:55:30which washed up dead
00:55:32on the shores.
00:55:34Autopsies indicated its stomach
00:55:36contained a pair of trousers,
00:55:38a golf ball, more than 20
00:55:40plastic bags, small towels
00:55:42and a surgical glove.
00:55:44When they reach the sea, they can
00:55:46be consumed by marine species
00:55:48like
00:55:50sea turtles.
00:55:52And we have concrete examples whereby
00:55:54we have
00:55:56recovered the carcasses of
00:55:58sea turtles and after doing the
00:56:00necropsy, meaning doing
00:56:02some operation on the carcasses
00:56:04looking at the stomach,
00:56:06we found out that there was a lot
00:56:08of plastic bags
00:56:10in the stomach,
00:56:12and most of this plastic was
00:56:14coming from households.
00:56:16So plastic can be very
00:56:18detrimental not only for the environment,
00:56:20for the biodiversity,
00:56:22but also for our
00:56:24health. And another concrete
00:56:26example of the impact of
00:56:28plastic waste is
00:56:30when those plastics
00:56:32went into the drainage,
00:56:34sometimes they crack, especially
00:56:36plastic bottles. We can see
00:56:38the example in Douala.
00:56:40When those plastics are full
00:56:42in the drainage, they block the
00:56:44passage of the water
00:56:46when it rains, causing
00:56:48inundations in the
00:56:50city of Douala and even
00:56:52in many other cities.
00:56:54So it's becoming a very serious problem that
00:56:56we need to address.
00:56:58Solid waste, especially plastic pollution,
00:57:00is the main threat to oceans.
00:57:02But liquid waste that
00:57:04ends up in the ocean is a weapon
00:57:06of mass destruction on marine
00:57:08and aquatic life too.
00:57:10Wastewater transports nutrients,
00:57:12agricultural runoffs, pesticides
00:57:14and sewage that increase the
00:57:16nitrogen content of the water,
00:57:18encouraging algae bloom.
00:57:20This kills fish that feeds
00:57:223 billion people in the world.
00:57:24Organic waste are
00:57:26rich in nutritive elements
00:57:28like nitrate and phosphorus.
00:57:30And those elements can
00:57:32cause what we call eutrophication,
00:57:34which is an excess
00:57:36enrichment of the
00:57:38water bodies in
00:57:40nutrients, which can give rise
00:57:42to a proliferation of
00:57:44invasive plant species.
00:57:46A critical case, very
00:57:48close to us, is the Lake
00:57:50Osa in the Zangei Littoral Region,
00:57:52where an invasive weed,
00:57:54Salvinia molesta, has bloomed
00:57:56since 2017.
00:57:58Marine biologists of a local NGO
00:58:00called the African Marine
00:58:02Mammal Organization, AMCO,
00:58:04found out that the invasive marine species
00:58:06thrived because the
00:58:08nitrogen content of the water had
00:58:10changed. Probably
00:58:12pollutants from nearby industries
00:58:14or the building of dams had contributed
00:58:16to changing the chemistry of the water,
00:58:18making it toxic for species.
00:58:20Like Salvinia,
00:58:22for the case of Lake Osa,
00:58:24which was a good example
00:58:26of nutrient
00:58:28enrichment into the
00:58:30lake that gave
00:58:32rise to the proliferation
00:58:34of that plant,
00:58:36which became very nuisance
00:58:38not only for the local community,
00:58:40but also for the manatee.
00:58:42Recently, researchers identified
00:58:44a threat on the River Sanaga,
00:58:46the longest river in Cameroon,
00:58:48which crosses six of the country's ten regions.
00:58:50Pollution by industries
00:58:52and population are identified
00:58:54among the threats.
00:58:56The researchers are calling for concerted efforts
00:58:58to stop this threat
00:59:00and save the river from death.
00:59:02The most renowned example
00:59:04of how pollution destroyed
00:59:06aquatic environment in Cameroon
00:59:08is the death zone created
00:59:10on the River Nyong, which is
00:59:12the center of life today.
00:59:14Tourists traveling by roads
00:59:16to the east region can no longer
00:59:18gaze into the beautiful river.
00:59:20It has been swallowed up by grass,
00:59:22fish, and aquatic birds
00:59:24no longer exist here.
00:59:26A reporter called
00:59:28marine life specialist Beatrice
00:59:30Losamba on that
00:59:32aquatic expedition with
00:59:34some of her specialists.
00:59:36Now let me come back to you in the studio
00:59:38from what we've just followed in that report.
00:59:40It comes out
00:59:42very clearly that it is a
00:59:44chain of reaction from land
00:59:46to marine.
00:59:48Nobody is safe, not even
00:59:50the fish that does not live on land.
00:59:52Of course, not even the fish.
00:59:54You just saw the old reports.
00:59:56I think I enjoyed the reports that
00:59:58we've just seen.
01:00:00It's very, very vivid
01:00:02that the marine life is
01:00:04in Tutajupati.
01:00:06Our rivers
01:00:08in Tutajupati,
01:00:10freshwater is a problem.
01:00:12It's engulfed by plastic.
01:00:14There's no way.
01:00:16You cannot even fish there.
01:00:18Most of the time, you look carefully
01:00:20and you don't even see fish.
01:00:22You see the plastic around.
01:00:24You ask yourself, how do the fish
01:00:26even survive?
01:00:28That's an issue.
01:00:30Even when you remove the plastics,
01:00:32just one day after,
01:00:34most of the environment
01:00:36we go there as activities
01:00:38to remove some of the plastics.
01:00:40Each time we remove the plastics,
01:00:42the next day when it rains,
01:00:44you come to the same situation.
01:00:46You see the same plastic
01:00:48as if nobody has touched it.
01:00:50There's a problem now with upstream.
01:00:52Where does the plastic come from?
01:00:54We call it
01:00:56from land.
01:00:58The issue of plastic pollution
01:01:00is not only directly with
01:01:02the ocean.
01:01:04We start with the land upstream
01:01:06and go downstream.
01:01:08You saw the effects
01:01:10of the plastic that's causing
01:01:12both in the freshwater and also in the marine.
01:01:14The challenge is not only plastic.
01:01:16There's equally liquid waste
01:01:18that has a huge, huge, huge
01:01:20impact on marine.
01:01:22We estimate that between now
01:01:24and 2050,
01:01:26we'll have more plastics
01:01:28than fishes.
01:01:30Because first of all,
01:01:32the plastic block cannot be produced.
01:01:34Okay?
01:01:36Now, the fish itself,
01:01:38they swallow and they die off.
01:01:40If you catch them,
01:01:42they see plastic in the container.
01:01:44Then, it's not even there.
01:01:46If you talk about plastic pollution,
01:01:48it's a problem because we have
01:01:50plastic in some of the breasts.
01:01:52Mothers see, I mean,
01:01:54children, babies,
01:01:56they see now plastic and microplastics,
01:01:58nanoplastics in the breasts.
01:02:00The human breasts, which means
01:02:02that we inhale plastics that we see.
01:02:04So, to see is really dangerous.
01:02:06Not only what the fiscal plastic we see,
01:02:08even the microplastics and nanoplastics,
01:02:10it's a problem because we breathe them,
01:02:12talk about air pollution caused by these plastics.
01:02:14So, the dangers are really very enormous.
01:02:16The government of Cameroon is
01:02:18well represented in the international scene.
01:02:20This intergovernmental
01:02:22panel on plastics,
01:02:24the NNC4,
01:02:26we're represented by a group of actors
01:02:28in Cameroon, about 20 of us
01:02:30to attend this, to negotiate
01:02:32because the plastic is not only
01:02:34locally, but not
01:02:36as well regionally, but
01:02:38worldwide. So, we are looking for ways
01:02:40now to come out of the internationally binding
01:02:42action to permit
01:02:44people now to control their use
01:02:46of the production of plastic up to
01:02:48consumption so that it should be limited.
01:02:50I come again to your question now.
01:02:52The problem of plastic, we don't have
01:02:54any problem with plastics.
01:02:56We have no problem now with
01:02:58liquid waste. We talked about
01:03:00the use of fertilizers,
01:03:02the emptying,
01:03:04most of the sewage that comes from
01:03:06or waste water that comes from industries
01:03:08is emptied into rivers and
01:03:10consequently to the seas.
01:03:12Now, we have this problem now, increase now.
01:03:14Not only
01:03:16we talked about eutrophication that might
01:03:18cause nitrogen and phosphorus content
01:03:20but as well as
01:03:22the pH of
01:03:24that particular environment, changing the place
01:03:26not fit for our lives.
01:03:28And so, we even have
01:03:30the issue of the
01:03:32poisoning as well because some of them
01:03:34has heavy metals.
01:03:36So now, the fishes around this area
01:03:38now may absorb
01:03:40the heavy metal and we eat them.
01:03:42We are affected. What is it being
01:03:44done at the level of your ministry
01:03:46to either lead
01:03:48the action or
01:03:50to encourage those
01:03:52who produce them to be able
01:03:54to manage or to tell them the best
01:03:56ways to handle liquid waste
01:03:58so they don't end up in this or in rivers.
01:04:00Thank you. I think
01:04:02the prerogative
01:04:04to give
01:04:06authorization for us to
01:04:08empty waste water into
01:04:10a restricted environment is given to the Ministry of
01:04:12Water and Energy.
01:04:14So now, in that case, it's clear
01:04:16that before they do that,
01:04:18the obligation as
01:04:20with expert view of the ministerial environment
01:04:22so there's a committee in that case now.
01:04:24Before now, the issue
01:04:26authorization now, we look at the document
01:04:28and we verify if it's done.
01:04:30Now, not only that, the ministerial
01:04:32environment with ANOR have actually
01:04:34produced now a standard
01:04:36on discharge. ANOR is the
01:04:38standard and norm? Yes, standard
01:04:40and quality control in terms of
01:04:42mines, industry. So,
01:04:44we have a list of standards
01:04:46that we work in. Before you
01:04:48discharge, you have to respect Cameroonian standards
01:04:50on that aspect. When inspectors
01:04:52go for inspections,
01:04:54they check with the industries
01:04:56so it's better in that place.
01:04:58It becomes very difficult at the level of household
01:05:00because you go and check there and there's no people
01:05:02there's nobody to lead
01:05:04trees. Maybe
01:05:06most of the big, small, maybe
01:05:08even the commercial structures, at times it be
01:05:10difficult. But industries is very
01:05:12very eminent that we control them
01:05:14and some masses.
01:05:16Polluters, by the way.
01:05:18They need to have the means because we have now
01:05:20the principle of extended producer
01:05:22so they have to ensure that
01:05:24what they are doing, what the sand and asphalt
01:05:26is well followed up and you don't need
01:05:28to pollute the environment
01:05:30because they have the means
01:05:32to ensure that the environment is
01:05:34kept clean and it's a duty that they have
01:05:36to respect. It's one of the environmental obligations
01:05:38that they are doing.
01:05:40Thanks for watching
01:05:42Inside Out on the Cameroonian Radio Television.
01:05:46Music
01:05:48Music
01:05:50Music
01:05:52Music
01:05:54Music
01:05:56Music
01:05:58Being an intricate subject,
01:06:00waste management
01:06:02needs solutions
01:06:04and efficient ones for that matter
01:06:06as well as methods to ensure
01:06:08positive results.
01:06:10By adopting specific strategies
01:06:12we can reduce
01:06:14waste and minimize
01:06:16its environmental impact
01:06:18and build a clean
01:06:20future. The world
01:06:22wide generation of
01:06:24solid waste material
01:06:26is forecasted to increase
01:06:28by around 70%.
01:06:30That is
01:06:323.4 billion metric
01:06:34tons by 2050.
01:06:36That's why moments ago we were being told
01:06:38on this program that maybe by that time
01:06:40there will be more plastic
01:06:42in the waters than the fish.
01:06:44This staggering
01:06:46number brings us to think
01:06:48about the local
01:06:50and global impact
01:06:52of waste on
01:06:54economies. Emanuela
01:06:56Vermeule did a round
01:06:58of some households in
01:07:00Yaoundé and now feeds us
01:07:02into some of the top
01:07:04management best practices
01:07:06that can
01:07:08be beneficial in
01:07:10creating a healthy
01:07:12environment for the home
01:07:14and for the
01:07:16community. Emanuela.
01:07:18Managing waste
01:07:20especially household waste
01:07:22for inhabitants of Yaoundé
01:07:24has become an issue that they have to
01:07:26deal with every day. They are deriving
01:07:28different means and methods
01:07:30so that dirt do not
01:07:32accumulate around their environment
01:07:34but get it out to the
01:07:36spot where the garbage management
01:07:38company can come for
01:07:40collection. How exactly are they
01:07:42doing this? Every home
01:07:44in Yaoundé is said to produce
01:07:46a considerable amount of household
01:07:48waste on a daily basis
01:07:50from biodegradable like peelings
01:07:52of food items to plastics
01:07:54and liquid waste. Homes are
01:07:56considered primary sources
01:07:58of household waste production.
01:08:00The proper handling of such
01:08:02undesirable material from
01:08:04how it is collected, stored
01:08:06and later disposed is what
01:08:08experts term good practices
01:08:10in waste management.
01:08:12A selection of waste to know
01:08:14which type of waste we have.
01:08:16Is it easily degradable
01:08:18or non-degradable?
01:08:20So we try to differentiate
01:08:22amongst the two.
01:08:24So thereafter we
01:08:26now see how we can conserve the waste
01:08:28and later on
01:08:30possible disposal.
01:08:32The moment we identify that this is
01:08:34degradable, we have
01:08:36a storage point for it.
01:08:38Non-degradable, another storage point
01:08:40because it facilitates
01:08:42the activities within the
01:08:44chain of custody. So much
01:08:46so that at the end point,
01:08:48even those transported to dump sites, they find
01:08:50it's very easy to apportion
01:08:52where the various waste
01:08:54types are supposed to be placed.
01:08:56Fred's mother runs a restaurant
01:08:58at the Chinga neighborhood in Yaoundé.
01:09:00Every day, the business lady
01:09:02just like many others,
01:09:04piles of waste material
01:09:06produced in the course of preparing
01:09:08different meals for their
01:09:10homes and businesses.
01:09:12All this is simply
01:09:14stored in a bucket.
01:09:16When my mother is cooking,
01:09:18after she's done cooking, like peelings of plantain,
01:09:20peelings of cocoyam, plastics,
01:09:22we gather them, we put them in a bucket.
01:09:24Then at
01:09:26five o'clock, there's always a boy who always comes here
01:09:28every evening, carry it,
01:09:30go and throw it, and we pay him
01:09:32100, 200. That's how we always manage.
01:09:34We have to keep it clean
01:09:36so people should come and eat because they should not come
01:09:38and make dirt everywhere.
01:09:40It can pass once a while.
01:09:42It does not pass every day, so we cannot
01:09:44accumulate dirt to wait for
01:09:46it to always pass. We have to manage our
01:09:48waste
01:09:50not for
01:09:52dirt to not be
01:09:54around us.
01:09:56This process is far from what experts
01:09:58say are the best practices in waste
01:10:00management. The different stages
01:10:02of handling such unwanted material
01:10:04are well known.
01:10:06In the process of consuming, we assume it's a product.
01:10:08But now after consumption,
01:10:10it becomes a waste.
01:10:12So households have a responsibility
01:10:14to
01:10:16actually identify that it's a waste
01:10:18and we need to handle
01:10:20it properly for safe disposition.
01:10:22We get the waste into the
01:10:24respective bags or containers,
01:10:26get them sealed,
01:10:28and then get them out of
01:10:30the immediate
01:10:32houses surrounding
01:10:34to a certain point which is actually
01:10:36designated to be
01:10:38where wastes are being stored.
01:10:40We store it there
01:10:42for eventual evacuation to dump sites.
01:10:44More than a majority of
01:10:46Yaounde city dwellers know
01:10:48and practice very little
01:10:50or nearly nothing about best practices
01:10:52in household waste management,
01:10:54a situation that's
01:10:56responsible for the heaps of refuse
01:10:58that litter streets, block gutters,
01:11:00fill up waterways
01:11:02with lots of consequences.
01:11:04Waste alone
01:11:06makes the environment so
01:11:08uncomfortable and waste is associated
01:11:10to a lot
01:11:12of climatic changes
01:11:14nowadays because
01:11:16this same waste, if it's not properly conserved,
01:11:18well transported,
01:11:20and eventually evacuated to
01:11:22proper dump sites, it becomes
01:11:24catastrophic.
01:11:26So much so that
01:11:28somebody was not sick,
01:11:30you find yourself sick,
01:11:32and it will entail
01:11:34an expenditure. So if there's an
01:11:36agency to regulate
01:11:38respective council
01:11:40processes and procedures
01:11:42to
01:11:44get this waste,
01:11:46respect the chain of production
01:11:48and chain of custody to
01:11:50permanent dump sites,
01:11:52it's going to be profitable to
01:11:54every citizen and the nation
01:11:56at large.
01:11:58As experts advance, the process towards
01:12:00a proper household waste management system
01:12:02involves everyone, from
01:12:04households to government and the general public
01:12:06in order to keep cities
01:12:08dirt free and lower the
01:12:10impact and reduce
01:12:12the impacts of poor waste
01:12:14handling on the environment
01:12:16and on human health.
01:12:20The problems
01:12:22are obvious, the solutions
01:12:24too. However,
01:12:26there comes the problem of
01:12:28the body that will actually
01:12:30provide these solutions.
01:12:32As lucrative
01:12:34as proper waste management
01:12:36can be, the capital
01:12:38cost of operation is
01:12:40highly priced.
01:12:42If we wait for the government,
01:12:44it might take forever.
01:12:46The few private waste management
01:12:48companies dotted around
01:12:50the country can cluster together
01:12:52to promote
01:12:54the cause of a cleaner
01:12:56cities and ultimately
01:12:58a cleaner country.
01:13:00We know the problem,
01:13:02we know the solutions,
01:13:04but how do we go about them?
01:13:06When are we
01:13:08going to stop talking
01:13:10and start doing?
01:13:12Kiliandat Ndifonse's
01:13:14policy is of essence
01:13:16here.
01:13:18The exponential
01:13:20increase in household
01:13:22and other township waste in Cameroon
01:13:24imposed a rethink
01:13:26by the state to look for
01:13:28ways of managing what had become
01:13:30a kind of embarrassment
01:13:32to everyone. So in
01:13:342018, a special
01:13:36exercise duty on
01:13:38some important goods was prepared
01:13:40and voted in parliament. A year later
01:13:42in 2019,
01:13:44the prime minister, head of government, signed
01:13:46a decree of implementation
01:13:48of the law and the collection
01:13:50of the special exercise duty
01:13:52has been impressive and consistent.
01:13:54At 0.5%
01:13:56in 2020,
01:13:5812,492,876,000
01:14:04CFA francs was collected,
01:14:06raised to 1%
01:14:08in 2021 by
01:14:10another text, 15,553,000
01:14:12153,197,000
01:14:14153,197,000
01:14:16CFA francs came in.
01:14:18The figure was doubled
01:14:20to 32,254,242,000
01:14:22to 32,254,242,000
01:14:24to 32,254,242,000
01:14:26CFA francs
01:14:28and over 31 billion
01:14:30in 2023.
01:14:32So in three years,
01:14:34the customs collected close to
01:14:36100 billion CFA francs
01:14:38from the special exercise duty.
01:14:40According to
01:14:42the prime ministerial decree of
01:14:44July 24, 2023,
01:14:465% of the funds
01:14:48got to the
01:14:50customs. That is
01:14:52the state. 95%
01:14:54to the city councils,
01:14:56councils and sub-divisional
01:14:58councils. Yaoundé city
01:15:00council takes 17.5%.
01:15:02Douala city
01:15:04council gets
01:15:0617.5%.
01:15:08Bafusam, Bamenda,
01:15:10Betuaboya, Iboluva-Edea,
01:15:12Garuwa, Kumba, Limbe,
01:15:14Kribi, Maruwa, Ngandori and
01:15:16Kongsamba share 35%.
01:15:18The other councils share
01:15:2030%. These
01:15:22percentages represent huge sums
01:15:24of money that can manage
01:15:26waste and carry out
01:15:28other projects. The riddle
01:15:30is to situate where there is
01:15:32the missing link. The customs
01:15:34department does a marvellous job
01:15:36to collect the special exercise
01:15:38duty. The money is deposited
01:15:40in the central treasury pool.
01:15:42This is where trouble begins.
01:15:44The state always has
01:15:46burning issues to settle
01:15:48with money and clearing
01:15:50debt is certainly far
01:15:52down the scale of preference.
01:15:54So simply, more
01:15:56urgent state issues, for example
01:15:58salaries, are settled.
01:16:00At this time, mounds of
01:16:02garbage fight for airspace
01:16:04in cities and municipalities
01:16:06of the country.
01:16:08This is where the missing link
01:16:10is found. The solution rests
01:16:12in a new text which should
01:16:14make it clear that when
01:16:16the customs collect the special
01:16:18exercise duty, the money
01:16:20should be deposited directly
01:16:22in an account for the purpose
01:16:24under the operational supervision
01:16:26of the special council
01:16:28support fund for mutual assistance
01:16:30FAICOM. This way,
01:16:32the cities and other councils
01:16:34will have an easy access
01:16:36to the funds meant
01:16:38for waste management and
01:16:40the results will be clean towns and
01:16:42cities of Cameroon. Not
01:16:44distinctly repulsive eyesores
01:16:46with mounds of waste
01:16:48used as location signposts
01:16:50with such shameful
01:16:52names as
01:16:54Garifu Kaka.
01:16:56On that
01:16:58numerous notes there with Kilian
01:17:00Da Diffon, it
01:17:02equally tells you how grim
01:17:04the situation has been in
01:17:06Yaounde. You know, solid and
01:17:08liquid waste has been present and just
01:17:10so present that
01:17:12whole neighborhoods and junctions are named
01:17:14Garifu Kaka, you know,
01:17:16by dump and solid
01:17:18and waste names.
01:17:20It should be troubling
01:17:22to people like you who are the policy makers.
01:17:24Well, policy maker
01:17:26was the main policy maker
01:17:28Minister, eh?
01:17:30No, actually, Minister. It comes because we propose
01:17:32and then it's validated at the upper stream
01:17:34and call it the parliamentarians
01:17:36as well, and then we
01:17:38implement. Actually, I think
01:17:40like what the
01:17:42report, the issue is
01:17:44this overlap of functions
01:17:46Again. And the text
01:17:48that we have. Again and
01:17:50again. Yes, this overlap
01:17:52each person has said to bring
01:17:54out, they said the solution
01:17:56We have a solution
01:17:58There is a problem, there is a
01:18:00solution. The missing gap now
01:18:02is to bring out these
01:18:04two together and now
01:18:06find out a way
01:18:08I mean a complete, a leeway
01:18:10We are talking about, I want to
01:18:12salute the effort that the prime minister
01:18:14has actually done so far by actually signing
01:18:16in July
01:18:182023 this special
01:18:20exercise
01:18:22fund
01:18:24asking for 3 years
01:18:26now you see the actual
01:18:28almost 100 billion
01:18:30now to give that to cancel now
01:18:32Where is the money?
01:18:34Well, you heard
01:18:36in the report as well that because of
01:18:38pressing it, we try to reallocate
01:18:40some of the funds. But if at all
01:18:42a city like
01:18:44Yaounde
01:18:46says Yaounde, government actually
01:18:48proposed to manage Yaounde
01:18:50problem with 4.7 billion
01:18:52by the same
01:18:54Yaounde city council in 2016
01:18:56World Bank report
01:18:58shows that we need 15 billion
01:19:00that's 2016
01:19:02then if you come now
01:19:04just imagine, maybe about 20 billion
01:19:06this is the money we need
01:19:08to ensure
01:19:10that
01:19:12we can really properly manage waste
01:19:14on a daily, I call it for annually
01:19:16you see actually
01:19:18the amount that is divided as almost 17
01:19:20point something for the cities
01:19:22Yaounde is quite a good
01:19:24chunk. Our problem should
01:19:26be how that money should be properly managed
01:19:28and to who is attributed
01:19:30and then we need to have a proper
01:19:32follow up. Now one of the conditions
01:19:34in the same this Prime Minister
01:19:36actually saluted
01:19:38that each country should come out with
01:19:40a waste management
01:19:42plan
01:19:44that's now the problem
01:19:46now. The minister for all
01:19:48these years our councils don't have any
01:19:50waste management plan
01:19:52they had council development plan
01:19:54now they need now a waste management plan
01:19:56because it's actually one of the
01:19:58requirements for
01:20:00a good council to need
01:20:02to have this plan
01:20:04that is their prime activity too
01:20:06they should because
01:20:08I'm not like trying to
01:20:10index councils
01:20:12most of the councils that if you look at
01:20:14when I was a delegate
01:20:16for maybe the meetings
01:20:18for the deliberations
01:20:20there's no fund allocated for waste
01:20:22so means even the council
01:20:24don't even see waste as a problem
01:20:26so if we need
01:20:28only one to come out from this
01:20:30mess, the money that is allocated
01:20:32should be given to council and should be
01:20:34follow up
01:20:36now if you have
01:20:38a waste
01:20:40or council waste management plan
01:20:42or inter-council in case they have
01:20:44like a city council
01:20:46city management
01:20:48city waste management plan
01:20:50now it would be easier now for somebody
01:20:52anywhere to see
01:20:54where there's a need to maybe put in money
01:20:56or to support the council in one area
01:20:58or the other. If there's no fund
01:21:00or no waste management
01:21:02plan, it becomes difficult for us
01:21:04to see what is happening. The minister of local
01:21:06development, I'll call it Midevel
01:21:08is actually working with the councils
01:21:10the minister of
01:21:12urban development is working with the councils
01:21:14the minister of environment is working with the councils
01:21:16so we need now to federate this
01:21:18so that we help the council
01:21:20to have a good document
01:21:22and that's why at the level of ministry
01:21:24actually in the days that I will have to produce
01:21:26a guide, as I said, a guide now to permit
01:21:28councils now, a guide now to permit councils
01:21:30to draw up a good and validated
01:21:32I mean completed
01:21:34council management plan
01:21:36and remember that this
01:21:38waste management plan
01:21:40according to the prime ministerial text of
01:21:422012 says that the minister of environment
01:21:44is the one to
01:21:46approve
01:21:48so this, that's why we have a policy issue
01:21:50that we need now to ensure that
01:21:52it's well done and it's approved according to
01:21:54national and international regulations
01:21:56we have people that are coming out of the city
01:21:58they want to come in to transform waste
01:22:00into electricity, they want to transform waste
01:22:02into other products and we want
01:22:04them, but we need to
01:22:06create a platform to see where
01:22:08each one is going to place
01:22:10so that we don't have a multiplicity of
01:22:12actors in one area and then an area
01:22:14without anything, it actually creates a small
01:22:16problem somehow, while the means of
01:22:18commerce now wrote, actually
01:22:20banning the export of
01:22:22recycle
01:22:24plastics, it became
01:22:26an issue, why it came?
01:22:28because there's a company
01:22:30that's proposing a model that
01:22:32the plastic that we're having
01:22:34is too small for
01:22:36for the plant, it needs more plastic
01:22:38so we said, ok, we want
01:22:40we need to go, we want to call it
01:22:42because it's called the mate in Cameroon
01:22:44policy, and we think that
01:22:46it's a good practice that
01:22:48exporting plastics outside, when we can
01:22:50transform here, the process is called
01:22:52bottle to bottle, so you actually
01:22:54call it a model that they want to
01:22:56in this case, we want to collect all the waste here
01:22:58and transform here, and I see now the
01:23:00increase of plastic collection, I mean there's
01:23:02now an increase in plastic collection
01:23:04in most of the rivers and things
01:23:06selling now to this guy
01:23:08and this guy, this company
01:23:10is one of the major actors
01:23:12in this stock exchange
01:23:14to ensure that he too can
01:23:16play a part in contributing specifically for plastic
01:23:18now the other actors
01:23:20they want to come now to transform
01:23:22some of the bio LPG
01:23:24petroleum, equalified petroleum
01:23:26gas, we want these guys
01:23:28but you know they can only come in
01:23:30when the situation
01:23:32is clear, one, if at all the household
01:23:34is able to separate the waste
01:23:36from the source, and now
01:23:38keep that waste
01:23:40can sell it to this
01:23:42structure, they can buy it now, they help
01:23:44the household, and also produce gas
01:23:46from that area, and so we
01:23:48only have this different speciality
01:23:50of the waste stream now, if we
01:23:52have these actors and they come and they have
01:23:54good intentions, working with the local council
01:23:56first of all, because the council
01:23:58see themselves in the process
01:24:00seeing that a force within
01:24:02their various
01:24:04waste management plan
01:24:06now, and now, acting now to the policy
01:24:08of the government, now in this case now
01:24:10the issue becomes now resolved
01:24:12now you raised an issue there concerning this
01:24:14idea of sorting
01:24:16waste, and it should come from the base
01:24:18like you say, specifically household
01:24:20waste, that is a challenge, and how
01:24:22do you think we can get to that, we can
01:24:24obtain, we can have households
01:24:26to knowing that you don't dump
01:24:28bottles and plastics and
01:24:30every other home waste
01:24:32together, who takes the message
01:24:34to the close class?
01:24:36Thank you very much for the question, we have the local
01:24:38councils that are there, very close
01:24:40they have, that's their constituency
01:24:42that's the word they use
01:24:44they need to kind of add sensitization
01:24:46inform the population
01:24:48Do they make provisions for that?
01:24:50No, what I'm saying is in this case
01:24:52an operator, a service provider
01:24:54comes and meet the councils
01:24:56I'm interested in bottles, like you see
01:24:58here the case of
01:25:00the Tuba council
01:25:02as well as the city council
01:25:04they come in and tell them that
01:25:06I want plastics
01:25:08now this may be a convention
01:25:10a contract is signed with the council
01:25:12and then they go, maybe go to
01:25:14household and give their containers
01:25:16or their trash, they cannot
01:25:18give the frequency of when to come
01:25:20and collect so that they don't pile
01:25:22they collect now, in this case now, you see the issue
01:25:24and this practice is what is done in Rwanda
01:25:26Kufulu is full
01:25:28the capacity is overcapacitated
01:25:30they need to look at a different place
01:25:32this is an issue that we are trying to look at
01:25:34and the people interested
01:25:36to say okay, before we, you know
01:25:38there's a problem of Kufulu that is full
01:25:40we are coming with a solution that maybe
01:25:42we start there and try to
01:25:44decarbonize
01:25:46and maybe transform
01:25:48their waste that they have into electricity
01:25:50into other forms
01:25:52all discussions that we are having
01:25:54at the prime ministry, at the various
01:25:56ministerial departments, but you need not to
01:25:58consent all of this effort now
01:26:00not to look for a way for
01:26:02a plan, like what the
01:26:04president said, he needs an immediate solution
01:26:06an urgent one of course
01:26:08and how do we get there?
01:26:10yes
01:26:12this is the way the challenge starts
01:26:14and that's why the presidency
01:26:16is handling it, it's own way
01:26:18it's moving, working with
01:26:20the various ministries
01:26:22and gather information now to come
01:26:24maybe very very soon
01:26:26we maybe have a leeway
01:26:28from this solution to see who comes
01:26:30because most of the issues that we see
01:26:32that we have, the issue of
01:26:34finance, you look at it very well, from what the
01:26:36the collection
01:26:38that we just have in the past year, 100 billion
01:26:40is quite interesting, really good
01:26:42now we may say
01:26:44that the issue of finance is
01:26:46beginning to go down
01:26:48another problem will come in our technology transfer
01:26:50we need to transform now
01:26:52what are the technologies available
01:26:54I've just listed a few
01:26:56we can now encompass
01:26:58to enjoy this process
01:27:00that's another issue now
01:27:02and then now, we need to issue
01:27:04legal procedures
01:27:06who comes in to take what
01:27:08now when you handle these 3 or 4 issues
01:27:10now, you see the problem of waste
01:27:12now, it's resolved
01:27:14now, when you say all of that
01:27:16it means that you are confident
01:27:18that it can be done
01:27:20so, if given the current stakes
01:27:22we have
01:27:24major cities still
01:27:26under the weight of
01:27:28waste
01:27:30how long should we wait
01:27:32or how soon should we hope
01:27:34to see our cities freed
01:27:36of this current, uncatered
01:27:38for waste that is
01:27:40almost invading the whole
01:27:42life ecosystem
01:27:44it can be immediate, it can be long term
01:27:46it can have short, medium
01:27:48and long term
01:27:50for short term
01:27:52I think this is where the council needs to come in
01:27:54to sit up
01:27:56to take the responsibilities
01:27:58to discipline, to ensure that
01:28:00this issue
01:28:02is handled
01:28:04is the ground level enough
01:28:06I don't want to tell what is happening
01:28:08because if you dig deep
01:28:10if you dig deep
01:28:12you see that
01:28:14the local council
01:28:16is complaining that the city council
01:28:18is doing their job
01:28:20and the city council is saying the local council is doing their job
01:28:22finally, you have this complaint
01:28:24coming, I mean
01:28:26competencies transferred and maybe removed
01:28:28it's a problem, that one should be touched
01:28:30and when two elephants fight
01:28:32it is the grass that suffers
01:28:34so you see that issue, they give you
01:28:36the council are really doing very well
01:28:38you have this good cooperation between a level of council
01:28:40and this is where the
01:28:42Minister of Urban Development
01:28:44comes in to help supervise
01:28:46this one
01:28:48we work now with other
01:28:50Ministerial level, we work now with other ministries
01:28:52like Minister of Environment
01:28:54like Minister of Urban Development
01:28:56even the Minister of Water and Energy
01:28:58because we talk about ways to use water
01:29:00now we have a platform we are creating
01:29:02under the supervision of the Prime Minister
01:29:04now when you have this
01:29:06this is now, this is now
01:29:08long term
01:29:10long term will be that
01:29:12we don't want to even get long term
01:29:14because it's not something we want
01:29:16you see, just imagine
01:29:18the solution is now
01:29:20we need to act now
01:29:22and that's why right now, as I speak
01:29:24my Minister, Excellency
01:29:26is now holding a meeting
01:29:28seat on Booth
01:29:30because he wants actors to come in
01:29:32and buy, we go operational
01:29:34it's too much talking
01:29:36it's too much talk
01:29:38it's talk, talk, you need to talk with actions
01:29:40so the actions should come from all the various levels
01:29:42and I think that
01:29:44from my readings
01:29:46I feel that
01:29:48they are going, but we need now to
01:29:50tell some people to wake up
01:29:52from where they are sleeping
01:29:54and in this case, I think I have to be straight
01:29:56the council should sit up
01:29:58and forget about the issue, who is holding what
01:30:00and leave their various differences
01:30:02we work to clean our cities
01:30:04in Cameroon
01:30:06Cameroon cannot be an eyesore, no
01:30:08we should have a way forward
01:30:10and that should come at this meeting
01:30:12and one aspect too, the population
01:30:14I think the population has so much to do
01:30:16their contribution is that
01:30:18we need to call it mindset
01:30:20waste
01:30:22don't waste
01:30:24if you are done, you someone look at the
01:30:26trash can, put it down
01:30:28and you ask him, if I don't do it
01:30:30what's the work of ISACAM
01:30:32what do you do, you need to put it
01:30:34so if a city like that, maybe put one council
01:30:36or two council police
01:30:38and give some trashes
01:30:40next time, or you send a child
01:30:42you say no, let me go and put it in the dump
01:30:44and then the frequency of collection
01:30:46is an issue too
01:30:48you put a dump or a trash can
01:30:50you spend maybe two or three weeks to come and collect
01:30:52what do you expect, there's a problem
01:30:54so you need to frequency it, and I was told
01:30:56that frequency of collection depends
01:30:58on the availability of finance
01:31:00so if there's a finance
01:31:02you see that they are interwoven
01:31:04the issue of finance is gradually being resolved
01:31:06because the prime minister has taken
01:31:08has handled the bull by the sun
01:31:10by bringing out this special duty
01:31:12excess duty
01:31:14that the ones permit
01:31:16over 75, and all the money we give it to FECOM
01:31:18to manage, FECOM is actually
01:31:20the bank of councils
01:31:22they cannot get access to this fund now
01:31:24now we have this thing, it becomes not easy now
01:31:26that one is handled, now you should keep defenses
01:31:28and go to work
01:31:30you said a very good question
01:31:32when households separate the waste
01:31:34and then the waste comes now to somebody's garden
01:31:36the person coming to collect this waste
01:31:38now, can't have one container
01:31:40put everything, lump everything
01:31:42that effort is wasted
01:31:44exactly
01:31:46so now, that's why I see
01:31:48part of the council now playing now
01:31:50ensure that the waste that this
01:31:52household have
01:31:54I mean they have tried to sort out
01:31:56now go to a specialized
01:31:58service provider to go to those various households
01:32:00and collect just their waste
01:32:02if this one is installed
01:32:04then
01:32:06the waste, I just say that
01:32:08what is collected so far
01:32:10it's just
01:32:12it's not up to, I would say, 23%
01:32:14so there's a problem somewhere, that's where we need to go
01:32:16Mr. Mbuha-Eisen
01:32:18I want you to look at that camera
01:32:20and reassure Cameroonians that
01:32:22yes, we can
01:32:24yes
01:32:26we've listened to what
01:32:28we've said so far, is we need
01:32:30now to ensure
01:32:32that we have the capability
01:32:34we have the manpower
01:32:36as I've put it, resources are there
01:32:38we can, if we can
01:32:40do this together
01:32:42as one person
01:32:44to move forward
01:32:46and then we're able to join the head of state
01:32:48in his call
01:32:50that we need to keep our cities very clean
01:32:52Mr. Eisen Mbuha
01:32:54he is the sub-director
01:32:56of Norm and Standard
01:32:58in Cameroon's Ministry of
01:33:00Environment, Nature Protection
01:33:02and Sustainable
01:33:04Development, he was guest
01:33:06on Inside Out this evening
01:33:08thank you for your insights
01:33:10I should be the one thanking you for creating this forum
01:33:12for us to talk and exchange and receive
01:33:14exact emissions of various ministries
01:33:16and how we can better handle
01:33:18our country, Cameroon
01:33:22music
01:33:24music
01:33:26music
01:33:28music
01:33:30music
01:33:32music
01:33:34music
01:33:36The fix for the trash holdup
01:33:38in Cameroon today
01:33:40can definitely not be
01:33:42a multiplication of the number
01:33:44of trashcans on the pavements
01:33:46far from it
01:33:48Cameroon's garbage
01:33:50disposal problem
01:33:52is less about
01:33:54the number and location of public
01:33:56trashcans in towns
01:33:58than it is about
01:34:00educating the public about
01:34:02reducing the amount of
01:34:04trash they produce
01:34:06and how to dispose
01:34:08of the waste they produce
01:34:10so wastes can
01:34:12become a source
01:34:14of wealth
01:34:16this will require
01:34:18a paradigm shift from the
01:34:20authorities in charge of cities
01:34:22so they no longer
01:34:24consider rubbish as
01:34:26material without any value
01:34:28but as a resource
01:34:30to be valued
01:34:32in order to derive
01:34:34economic and health benefits
01:34:36useful for all
01:34:38moreover
01:34:40with decentralization
01:34:42the collection of garbage
01:34:44as well as the treatment
01:34:46will certainly be
01:34:48opened up to competition
01:34:50which will better resolve
01:34:52the problem of
01:34:54unsanitary conditions
01:34:56in our cities
01:34:58the establishment of a
01:35:00waste pre-collection system
01:35:02is recommended here
01:35:04one man's trash
01:35:06another man's
01:35:08treasure
01:35:10and that's my take on the program today
01:35:12many thanks for watching
01:35:14from the entire crew
01:35:16and me
01:35:18it's bye for now
01:35:44music
01:35:46music
01:35:48music
01:35:50music
01:35:52music