S.O.S. sacs plastiques ! April 2, 2010

Le sac plastique est aujourd’hui au Cameroun comme dans la plupart des pays en Afrique et dans les autres continents, l’instrument le plus répandu d’emballage et de transport des petits achats, particulièrement dans les agglomérations urbaines. Autrement appelé sac de caisse, il est offert ou vendu aux clients par les commerçants, toutes catégories confondues, pour faciliter le transport des marchandises peu volumineuses et même, dans les quartiers, de denrées alimentaires apprêtées pour la consommation comme le poulet, le porc ou le poisson braisés. Le cabas, sac à provisions en paille tressée ou plus naturellement, surtout dans les campagnes, la feuille pliée de macabo, de bananier, de cacao, sont de moins en moins d’usage. 

ENVIRONMENT-CAMEROON: Women Face to Face with Desertification March 3, 2010

NGOUMA, Northern Cameroon, Feb 15 (IPS) – The village of Ngouma has a population of 538 people, 406 of which are women. Most of the men, especially those who can still work the fields, have left in the face of land degradation and even desertification. 

"Stock breeders are migrating to grazing areas and fishermen are going north to Lake Chad, which is only nine kilometres away. Those who do not have fixed employment are going to the cities," Yaya Djouldé, the village chief, told IPS. 

Ever since the early 1970s, Ngouma and other villages in the province of Maroua have only received about 200 millimetres (mm) of rain annually, says Martin Ndongmo : an agroforestry engineer who works for the Maroua delegation of the Ministry of Environment and the Protection of Nature. The national rainfall average is 1,500 mm. 

Yaounde – Ensuring Sustainable Management of Floods

Management of the River Mfoundi floods will benefit form the experience of the Rhone in Lyon, France.

Floods are a common phenomenon in most big towns and cities in Cameroon. Managing this natural disaster was the major preoccupation during a conference dubbed "Mecredis des Grandes Conferences" in the campus of the university of Yaounde 1 last Wednesday. The theme of the conference was "Management of floods in urban areas: From Rhone in Lyon to Mfoundi in Yaounde; what lasting solutions?".