More And More Old Vehicles In Large Cities Of Cameroon. :: Cameroon
They move at a fast pace. With opaque columns of smoke in their wake. And sometimes accident victims. These are vehicles banned from circulation in Europe and Asia but used as taxis in Cameroon. Douala is their stronghold. State of play of a controversial transport system.
The visitor who arrives in the big Cameroonian cities is immediately struck by a singular phenomenon: the proliferation of old vehicles.
In the economic capital of Cameroon, there are more and more of these vehicles, sometimes exceeding their drivers in age. When it is not the roads which are the image of the city itself, it is the vehicles which occupy them which are its characteristic mark.
But it’s not so much the number of these vehicles that impresses. Nor is it the swarm of carcasses of vehicles sometimes abandoned along the roadsides that are said to be bothersome there.
What is striking is the toxic gas that these vehicles spew. This is because, for the most part, they are second hand and therefore old, they are poorly maintained: their drivers, more interested in revenue than in the condition of their vehicle, end up forgetting the necessary adjustments. As a result, their vehicles produce a formidable smoke, the exhaust of which is responsible for multiple ailments: Eye irritation, coughing, feeling of suffocation, asthma, etc.
Recent studies carried out by local NGOs show an increase in cases of pneumonia in this metropolis. According to some specialists, the benzene contained in gasoline has carcinogenic effects. Unfortunately, the devastation does not stop there.
In reality, some vehicles are truly deadly carcasses. Not a day goes by without them causing accidents or, in some cases, leading unlucky passengers from life to death. It is here that we saw clandestine mini buses with bodies held together by electrical cables or iron wires and whose exhaust spews black smoke.
The motorcycle taxis also polluting the air honk everywhere, except for the ears of the sheltered police officers who easily continue their chat.
Faced with such a situation, what solutions should be adopted?
During off-peak hours, some road users, especially the most resourceful, wear masks, taking out pieces of cloth that cover their noses and mouths.
It seems to us that to reduce pollution by exhaust gas in Cameroonian cities, courageous measures must be taken: Surcharge the oldest imported second-hand vehicles in order to favor the entry into the territory of the least old vehicles .
So far, quite the opposite is in practice in this central African country. It would also be necessary to insure those who are in circulation and to have them undergo a proper technical inspection, conditions without which no authorization to circulate should be issued…
All these measures would have the induced effects of diversifying the almost uniform fabric of urban transport; to reduce the growing number of old vehicles on the road; to promote the safety of people transported and to preserve air quality.
But how can we preserve air quality when we know that all the sewers are blocked?
