In effect, Members of Parliament leave their constituencies for the Ngoa Ekelle Glass House with a whole load of problems which they hope should be addressed to the satisfaction of the population of their area. The problems range from lack of roads, earth and tarred, schools and school infrastructure, to poor or no water supply, low or no electricity supply, no telephone network, etc. These, in effect are recurrent problems that usually take central stage during parliamentary debates.
Government, from every indication, is not indifferent to these concerns as exemplified by the content of the 2011 Economic, Financial, Social and Cultural Programme which recognises the fact that infrastructure development is the trump card to efficient fight against economic crisis. Even though a whole package of infrastructure projects have been announced for 2011, it appears important to reflect on the hurdles that hampered the total execution of the 2010 projects. The execution rate of road maintenance projects for 244 contracts to maintain 5,591 kilometres of earth road and 4,336 kilometres of tarred roads is expected to painstakingly reach 70 percent by the end of the year.
Giant energy projects such as Lom Pangar Hydroelectric Reservoir and Memve’ele Hydroelectric Project among others, and deep sea port projects of Kribi and Limbe , announced for construction several years before have remain topics of political and economic discourse. The interesting thing about all these dispensations is that all the stake holders are aware of the importance of infrastructure in socio-economic development. How far this gimmick will continue is the question on every mind especially as all are living the realities of infrastructure vacuum.
The farmer in Furu Awa, Mouloundou or Tinto will not like to hear that he or she will continue to trek long distances crops-on-head to the market. The fishermen in Kribi and Limbe want facilities to enable them preserve their catch. Poor supply of energy has not only paralysed industrial activities in major cities, it has deprived the rural population of certain accompanying facilities than can enhance their agricultural and other rural activities.
The decision to identify infrastructure provision as the main focus of the country’s Economic, Financial, Social and Cultural Programme tells of government’s determination to reverse the trend. The projects that are expected to be executed within the framework of the Growth and Employment Paper, will hammer on the construction of new roads, rehabilitation and maintenance of old ones. According to the programme, 200 kilometres of major roads and 150 kilometres of rural roads will be tarred. As for telecommunication, 120 community multimedia centres will be built. Three thermal plants with a capacity of 100 megawatts will be constructed in Mbalmayo, Bamenda and Ebolowa pending the effective takeoff of the major energy projects, one of which is expected to begin before the end of the year. About 19 will see their water supply reinforced thanks to the colossal disbursement of FCFA 31 billion. If all these and others in the social sector equally programmed for 2011 were to be realised, then it would have been a well targeted option for the government.
