The removal of the waste also eases traffic circulation between Nkololoun and Camp Yabassi.

At one time, inhabitants of Camp Yabassi and Nkololoun and users of the road connecting them thought the Douala City Council (DCC) has forgotten their inconvenience cohabiting with waste accumulation and floods under and around the bridge linking the two neighbourhoods. DCC’s draining of the ever wet gutter last week has put a smile on the faces.

Now both inhabitants and users of that stretch commute easily across the bridge even after rainfall, a thing they could not do for over 12 years. Few days ago, heavy DCC machineries were deployed to clear off the rubbish from under the bridge and its surroundings, digging up mud and facilitating the flow of water.

However, this is just a temporary solution to relief the public of the nuisance of floods and pollution. Concrete solution would involve not just an overhaul but the construction of the gutter. To surrounding residents, the gutter has been a permanent source of inaccessibility with every drop of rain. A resident of Camp Yabassi, Moussi R., say even when places are dry there is yet the problem of strange visitors like dogs and flies as a result of carcasses dumped there. Frogs and big rats run into and out of neighbouring homes while mosquitos and flood water is a nuisance they lived with. Out of three residents Cameroon Tribune talked to all blaming the DCC for “gross negligence”, none attributed the cause of the problem to careless and indiscriminate disposal of waste into the gutter.

Situations like this exist in Bilongue at the bridge linking Madagascar and Bilongue neighbourhoods. It is almost completely locked up by industrial and kitchen wastes from beneath and around the bridge. Other scenarios of the same magnitude occur at Ndokotti and Ndogpassi, where decades of human cohabitation with waste has turned into a pattern that baffles any stranger to the area. These raise the need for inhabitants to be provided with effective awareness on environmental protection to avert disease outbreak like cholera.