Following complaints from residents of Douala 4th district, the Cameroonian Consumers Foundation is calling for priority technical intervention before September. Between giant potholes, the risk of epidemics, and a threatened start to the school year, the association is relying on decentralization laws to request swift action from local authorities.
With less than a month to go before the start of the 2026-2027 school year, the Bonendale neighborhood, located in the Douala 4th district, is overwhelmed. As Cameroon’s economic capital is currently experiencing the full force of the heavy rains of the rainy season, the road infrastructure in this area has reached a critical breaking point. Responding to numerous complaints from consumers and residents, the Cameroonian Consumers’ Foundation (Focaco) has just launched an official appeal to alert the municipal authorities. The situation is clear: giant potholes transformed into veritable swamps and impassable mud pits threaten the lives of the local population, and more specifically, « the future of schoolchildren. »
Currently,The road leading to the local health center is now the scene of a daily ordeal. Ambulances, emergency vehicles, as well as pregnant women and people with reduced mobility, regularly find themselves trapped in the mud. With the torrential rains that have been lashing the city this August, these crevices are filling with stagnant water, completely paralyzing medical evacuations.
Beyond the impassable road, a genuine ecological and health crisis is evident. The immediate surroundings of the Health Center are now littered with illegal dumps of garbage and stagnant water. Focaco fears an imminent proliferation of mosquito breeding grounds and the outbreak of deadly epidemics such as malaria, cholera, or various skin diseases, precisely when people are coming to seek medical care.
The start of the school year is threatened.
The situation is all the more urgent given that this road is heavily used by students every day. The Executive President of Focaco, Alphonse Ayissi Abena, expressed his deep concern about the upcoming school year: « The daily use of this road by so many students raises fears of a surge in falls, injuries, and accidents. » Without immediate intervention, going to school in Bonendale could become a high-risk activity from the very first days of September.
To lend weight to its action, the consumer protection association reiterates the legal foundations that obligate the State and its agencies to act. This plea is based in particular on Law No. 2011/012 on consumer protection in Cameroon, Law No. 96/12 relating to environmental management (obligation of public health), as well as the 2019 General Code of Decentralized Territorial Collectivities, which explicitly grants municipalities jurisdiction over roads and sanitation.
While commending the constant efforts of the Douala Urban Community (CUD) and the Douala 4th Town Hall for the modernization of the city despite a
constrained budgetary context, Focaco urges the municipal magistrates to include Bonendale in the list of priorities.
To restore the viability of the area, the foundation’s executive office proposes three emergency measures: first, the immediate removal of waste and the clearing of blocked pipes bordering the medical access road; second, emergency profiling of the roadway to eliminate mud and facilitate the passage of emergency vehicles; and finally, the creation of a permanent monitoring partnership involving the city’s technical services, the health committee, and consumer representatives.
