The myriad of insecurities in the neighbourhoods are linked to dirty environment.

Life is quite different in the neighbourhoods of Soboum and Bilongue, Douala III Subdivision, from the rest of the economic capital. The nicety and calmness of daily activities is quickly interrupted by the sight of a greatly polluted gutter and its bushy length as one edges towards the bridge connecting the two neighbourhoods.

The most telling experience is the ever-present pollution and insecurity that has become common knowledge among Douala city dwellers. From under and a little distance from the bridge, industrial and kitchen wastes have turned the area into a volatile source of insecurities and infections, with bandits taking up the bushy environment running the length of the gutter as dens for “banga” smoking or hideouts from where people are assaulted at night. Flushing pollutants back into the stream is not an easy chore but a stressful toil to youths who are obliged to break sleep at nights, and women who must take leave of their house work in the day to push waste back into the 10-metres wide gutter at the event of any serious rainfall.

The gutter was 6 metres deep at construction in 1980. In the last decade, it has been a constant threat to lives and properties, having been filled with refuse. Aided by trees, plantain and banana suckers as well as clog of herbs and natural vegetation, the banks of the ever wet gutter has become a coordination zone for underworld break out. “We want public lighting here,” says Hortense Kamga, an inhabitant adding that, “Acts of vandalism on electric cables and the dispossessing of passersby of money and properties are nevertheless bogging inhabitants.” Noutchou Jean, a Soboum quarter head says, “Just a few months ago we contributed FCFA 300.000 to drain the gutter. But the situation is even unbearable now and we have repeatedly asked the assistance of council authorities to no avail. Oumga Cedrick, an inhabitant, say itches on the bodies, malaria, and diarrhoea, are common with them, coupled with flies, mosquitoes and rodents during the dry season: “Floods are nevertheless leaving us worried over where to go in order to be free from their effects.”