The people of Bonakanda community in Buea, South West Region of Cameroon have beamed a sigh of relief following a decision to resolve their ailing water supply in no distant time by the Global Forum for the Defence of the Less privileged (GFDLP), a Civil Society Organization (CSO) based in Buea.
GFDLP declared her intention, October 13th 2016, during a socioeconomic development visit to the village. Aimed at accessing development challenges affecting Bonakanda village and effects on its indigenous identity, CEO of the CSO promised to sponsor 5 children in the village including 3 physically challenged.
The socio-economic visit brought together a cross section of the villagers, traditional authorities, local administrators and the staff of GFDLP.
Welcoming the visitors to the village, the chief, HRH Ndongo Emmanuel, lamented on the sufferings the unavailability of pipe borne water has caused the village. According to the Chief, villagers ‘travel’ several kilometers to fetch drinking water.
“We have on several occasions contributed money to ensure pipe borne water reach our village, even with additional assistance from other philanthropic bodies; yet all our efforts have gone in vain. Fathers, Mothers like Children, walk on foot to neighboring villages, just to carry water. It’s a very disturbing situation to us,” Chief Ndongo lamented.
The Chief indicated that a postmortem analysis carried out in the village revealed that the pipes used in generating water into the village caused the problem . He beckoned on the visitors to work with the villagers to generate the necessary resources and bring back water into the village.
Chief Ndongo Emmanuel also expounded on a myriad of challenges impeding development in the area. “We need assistance from the government so that we can produce crops in large quantities. Cameroon is now going to the second generation agriculture, so do we. There is also a problem with our roads. Most of our produce ends up in the village because of bad roads. We plead the government does something” He said.
For his part, the CEO of Global Forum for the Defence of the Less privileged, Mr Baudouin Ngah, promised to take the water crisis of the village as his top most priority. He indicated that though his organization has not got a bank full of money to immediately solve the problem, but its intellectual expertise coupled with networking will solve that and other development challenges as soon as possible. He explained the necessity of maintaining an indigenous identity, indicating that his organization will stop at nothing to protect the identity of the Bonakanda community.
“Our interest landed on Bonakanda village because it is one of the biggest indigenous community in Fako, if not, the entire South West Cameroon. We of GFDLP are very much interested in protecting the identity of the indigenous people. That is the reason why we will solve your (Bonakanda) problems so you do not lose your much cherished identity” Mr Ngah explained.
Corroborating the President of the CSO, the sub divisional inspector of Agriculture and Rural Development, in charge of Bonakanda and the Bova area, Mr Achekwa Charles, indicated that the government of Cameroon has put aside a number of development benefits to the rural communities.
He explained that all the communities have to do is to constitute themselves into cooperatives as stipulated under the new Organization of Harmonized business Laws in Africa (OHADA) Code.
He explained that should the people of Bonakanda form cooperatives, they will benefit from farm equipment, transformation machines, and other financial remuneration.
Highlight of the visit also included an intellectual discourse on Human and Social Development presented by Mr Henry Atah, a representative from the Ministry of Social Affairs.
