Bamenda: Floods continue to hinder movement
By Drusilla Nange
For the past months, there have been recurrent floods on the bridge linking Mile 3 and Mile 4 Nkwen.
The situation has been the same every raining season with travellers stranded for hours on the spot, while waiting for the downpour to disappear.
This year has been described as the worst by drivers who ply the highway because of the recurrent floods over the bridge, with many saying that the bridge is way too low.
According to the drivers, it is wickedness from authorities for not looking for tangible solutions to the problem which has left many tongues wagging.
Travel agencies like Nso Boys, Vatican and Amour Mezam at Mile 4 Nkwen, left travellers frustrated for over 10 hours as a result of the floods. Their vehicles arrived Matazem a little after 6pm and they were forced to turn back by security forces with the explanation that it was late to cross the borders.
According to reports from some drivers, they only succeeded to cross from noon, after spending hours on the spot with initial blames on the floods.
The same situation was witnessed on Wednesday September 7, as movement along the highway was halted for more than four hours, after it rained heavily.
According to Nforbe, a driver who was also victim of the flood, it is a disgrace to the authorities who have allowed the people to suffer:
“I have not experienced this kind of thing before in Bamenda. I have been standing here for more than an hour. It is unheard that things like this are happening in Bamenda,”
The drivers who ply the highway severally say that the government would have looked for a way to raise the bridge so that people can move freely along the highway.
According to a bike rider who refused to mention his name for security reasons, the flood is also a huge problem to them because even bikes cannot cross when it pours heavily:
“It is inconvenient for bikes to cross because water usually destroys our engines and sprocket.”
As the situation persists, some bike riders and inhabitants of Mile 4 have decided to carry people on their backs to cross the over 100 meter pool. They also carry luggages and are rewarded in cash.
“I cross with one person for 500frs. I also take 300frs depending on their size,” the bike rider who parked his bike narrated
Many wait for pickup vehicles and trucks to pay or help them cross the downpour.
The Mayor of Bamenda III, Fongu Cletus has however been trying to fight the situation, but to no avail.
The Mayor with his team brought an excavator to the scene, where it dug and tried in clearing off the pathway.
According to the Mayor, it was a temporal solution to the problem, as he narrated in an interview granted to Cameroon News Agency:
“We are here today as a temporal measure to rescue the people from the floods that are frequent on this bridge and we think that with this temporal measure, the situation will be ameliorated as we seek a permanent solution in the near future.”
While encouraging those that have become victims of the situation, Mayor Fongu pleaded with them to know that his council does not have full power to completely resolve the situation:
“I will like to share my words of encouragement with those who have suffered as a result of floods on this bridge and to say that we are sorry for what has happened before and what is happening now, and we think that with this little effort, the situation will not be the same again.”
“Waste management is equally the problem but you know we can only collaborate with the city council for the purpose of collecting and managing waste. They are the ones to open up and we can only rely on their programme on what they want to do to ameliorate the situation,” continued the Mayor.
But according to the Bamenda City Council, they need about 400 million to rehabilitate the roads in Bamenda. This was disclosed on September 1, 2022 during the council’s midterm evaluation.
Inhabitants of Bamenda have continued to cry that all urban roads in the town are faded out, causing a lot of traffic and destroying vehicles.
