The Development of Water Management Institutions and the Provision for Water Delivery in Cameroon: History and Futures¹⁶

Abstract

This paper examines past scenarios and future prospects for the development of water management institutions and provisions for water delivery in Cameroon. The major aim of the paper is to reconstruct the history of water management that led to the current water delivery system in Cameroon using the exploratory approach of data analysis supported with diagrams. As a result, data obtained from personal observation and secondary sources were used to capture the objectives of the inquiry. The paper observed that despite the classification of Cameroon as a water surplus country; the country's 18 million inhabitants confront the hardships from day to day and experience a low level of standard of living. This is due to the piecemeal occurrence of water development process over time from pre-colonial period to present. The non-existence of proper water policy and water law in the presence of water structures that are not properly developed in a young democracy have, thus, reinforced the situation of poor provisioning of water in the country. Consequently, the paper concludes that the poor provisioning of water in Cameroon is attributed to the lack of development of water management institutions and structures; it suggests a set of broad guidelines for developing water institutions.

A Hybrid Model for Achieving Universal Safe Drinking Water in the Medium-Sized City of Bangangté (Cameroon)

“…Readers interested in details on popular causes for the lack of water in rural and urban Africa are encouraged to read two recent articles by Hope and colleagues [1,3]. For the specific case of Cameroon, a paper by Oumar and Tewari [21] gives an excellent overview of institutional and legal weaknesses in current drinking water supply approaches. These aspects are beyond the scope of the present communication.…”

“…The development and implementation of decentralized drinking water supply systems requires a supportive regulatory, institutional and policy framework. Yet, the non-existence of a proper water policy (and law) in Cameroon is well-known and discussed, for example by Oumar and Tewari [21]. Their [21] conclusion was the following: "The creation of a financially autonomous water structure from which a good water policy and sound water law can be drafted to account for the present poor water management system is timely for the country".…”

“…Yet, the non-existence of a proper water policy (and law) in Cameroon is well-known and discussed, for example by Oumar and Tewari [21]. Their [21] conclusion was the following: "The creation of a financially autonomous water structure from which a good water policy and sound water law can be drafted to account for the present poor water management system is timely for the country". The present authors regard this study as their response to this call, directly addressed to the city of Bangangté, but adaptable to all other communities worldwide [62][63][64][65][66].…”

“…This lack of progress suggests that there might be some circular reasoning in the approach to solve the named problems, pointing to the need to think outside of the box and develop and pilot test new models. The historiography of colonial water supply and sanitation can provide some insights on how to think forward and overcome clean water supply problems [20][21][22].…”

“…Several similar colonial agglomerations existed elsewhere in several parts of Africa during the colonial period [2,20,25]. It is well-known in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa that traditional water management systems were available and operated in parallel to the colonial system [2,20,21]. Even though the quality of drinking water was not analytically determined, the management of water sources was locally well-organized [2].…”