Civil engineer says theft, corruption causing road degradation
Frequent road accidents and traffic jam in Cameroon are results of the deplorable states of the road networks in Cameroon.
Speaking to a civil engineering expert, Manchou Charles, on why Cameroonian roads are this bad and short lived after maintenance works, he said “corruption and bad faith on the part of those giving out the contracts, those receiving and supervising the execution of road construction projects cannot be ignored. People sit in their offices and award contracts to their friends , deducing the budget. For instance, if a project is worth FCFA 100 Million, they will deduct like FCFA 40 Million and give just F CFA 60 million to the contractor to execute it. It is obvious the result will be poor job done.”
According to Manchou Charles, this is why low quality materials are purchased to execute the projects.
“Tell me how the road will last long. The contractor will not remove money from his pocket to complete what he has been given to afford good quality materials. He will do the job with what has been handed to him.”
He added that “such tar is usually thin in thickness and will fast degrade when heavy trucks move on it. That is the case we have in Douala for example, whose landscape is clay and sand.”
Poor soil treatment, untrained individuals and the population according to him have contributed to road degradation in Cameroon.
“Low skilled or untrained persons are employed as road construction engineers. They don’t even treat the soil properly before tarring with the low quality materials purchased. It is obvious the road will degrade in just few weeks. The situation is worsened by burning of garbage on the tar which weakens the binding substances . When the population also block drainage channels, water overflows on the tar especially during the rainy season causing degradation. That is common in Douala.”
Manchou Charles prescribes the use of pavements as a veritable solution to to the poor roads seen in Douala and other communities in Cameroon.
