Poor Waste Management: Conciliator’s Report indexes Limbe, Buea, Tinto, Mundemba Councils
By Nchendzengang Tatah
The poor management of waste by local collectivities stands out as a peculiar challenge to local development in the South West region. This is the substance of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator’s (OPIC) 2025 Report presented in Buea on March 10, 2026. The report was presented in the presence of the Vice President of the South West Regional Assembly, Chief Ndike Richard, municipal representatives, civil society heads and journalists.
Madam Telelen Dorothy Atabong Epse Motaze, speaking at the esplanade of her office while addressing pressmen, noted that there had been general improvements in the last five years of the office’s work. However, the report didn’t go down well for some municipalities in terms of their endeavour to manage waste.
Council scorecard
In Limbe, one of the two city councils in the South West, the dirt management situation was alarming. The report noted that the dirt-dumb situation was preoccupying and needed much attention as denizens disclosed their resentment to it.
Just like Limbe, Buea the headquarters of the South West did not get a pass mark for urban hygiene. The seat of the administration in the region was seen to be almost abandoned with frightening garbage heaps and rare passage of the dirt disposal carriage services. The matter dropped into national discourse when the Buea-Kumba highway was almost blocked by a deafening pile of dirt in Liongo serving as a temporary dumpsite.
Rural areas like Upper Bayang were not left out in the poor management of dirt. The report stated that, “vendors operating in the Bachuo Akagbe market area encountered challenges related to waste disposal, stemming from the area’s growing population and the insufficient provision of waste management facilities… This suggests a broader need for comprehensive waste management strategies to address the issue across these communities.”
In Mundemba, the story wasn’t much different. The hygienic situation of the town didn’t offer a receptive atmosphere. This was the case even though locals admitted that the council was putting in much effort to ameliorate education in the area.
Data collection
The 2025 OPIC report not only scored below the belt, but praised efforts which were significant to the population and the region’s development in all councils. The report was informed by several data sources including town hall meetings, questionnaires(2882 questionnaires were reviewed), monitoring of media reports of aspects of local governance, and participation in public events.
Framework of report
According to the South West Conciliator, these made the report both legitimate and unbiased of the tights on the ground. Moreover, Madam Telelen said at the press briefing that, the report was intended solely to examine the state of the relationship between council service users and providers.
Finally, she called on Mayors and regional executives/councillors to keep in touch with the grassroots through residence. Globally, the preoccupying challenge was the inaccessibility of several areas of the region especially in the Bakassi peninsula. Madam Telelen beaconed for government goodwill in terms of road infrastructure to ease connectivity and service delivery across the region.
