The degrading state of roads in big towns and cities in the country has been a cause for concern in recent years. In Yaounde roads in most of the neighbourhoods are either dotted with potholes or the tar is gradually wearing away due to heavy rains. The poor state of roads in the city causes road blocks and traffic jam in some areas. Movement from one neighbourhood to another is almost impossible due to the poor state of the road network. Peter K. who lives in the Mendong neighbourhood said he prefers to use secondary roads to go to work so as to avoid potholes which might be dangerous for his vehicle. The question that comes to mind is who is responsible for the maintenance of urban roads.
The Director of Urban Development in the Ministry of Urban Development, Armand Romuald Ndjiba Bami said the Ministry takes care of the maintenance, rehabilitation and construction of roads in urban zones. Urban zones are usually zones with a population of over 2000 people. The Director of Urban Development said the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing allocates funds to the councils of Douala and Yaounde for the maintenance of certain projects since these councils have competent technical services. The councils execute the projects and then give feedback to the Ministry of Urban Development. He further said the Ministry intends to transfer competences to secondary towns by 2011 to see how they can be able to maintain their own urban roads. He said the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing has many projects but the major problem is lack of sufficient finances. As a result priority is given to projects that had already existed.
The technical director of the Yaounde City Council, Philippe Arnauld Ndzana said the city council is responsible for the maintenance of urban roads in Yaounde. Road maintenance, according to him, is done in three phases. The first phase involves cleaning of gutters to avoid standing water as water destroys the road. The second phase is blocking of potholes and thirdly in areas where there are many potholes in a particular area a layer of tar is covered on the damaged area to strengthen the road. In cases where the road is completely damaged, the city council rebuilds it. According to Philippe Arnauld Ndzana, the projects are programmed according to the money available. “For now the major problem is the lack of money to execute the projects” he said.
