WINNING ENTRY - IFRTD OPINIONS FAIR (March 2007)

Rural Infrastructure Maintenance
by Vivien Meli

Intermediate Means of Transport (IMTs) are commonly used amongst the Bamilekes in Western Cameroon.  They are used in both urban and rural areas, but the usage, requirements and risks are not the same in each case.  For vulnerable social groups they are the main, indeed the only, means of mobility and transport.  It is obvious why.  They are accessible in terms of purchase cost, maintenance and infrastructure. All that is available to these social groups are portage (headloading), rickshaws, wheelbarrows, bicycles and small motorcycles. The extent to which these, rickshaws in particular, are used in society is common knowledge.  However they are subject to many risks in terms of road safety.

The rickshaw is a means of transport used extensively in the Western province.  Each family has the use of at least one rickshaw.  In Santchou, for example, they are used alongside bicycles for social interaction and services (agricultural, educational, health, business, leisure etc.) on a daily basis.  Generally in Western Cameroon the rickshaw is essentially to agricultural and commercial activities.

In terms of agriculture, the use of rickshaws enables agricultural materials to be transported to the plantations and crops to be taken to rural and urban households and rural and urban markets.  It facilitates the transport of crops from isolated areas to major trunk roads where appropriate and more efficient means of transport can be found.  Here it is women and children/ young people (boys and girls) who make the most use of rickshaws.  Motorised means of transport, such as cars, are the exclusive preserve of men.

In terms of trade, it is young people and (male) children who use rickshaws for economic purposes.  In the rural markets, (as in the urban markets) young people and children use rickshaws for various transport services (which are necessary, indeed indispensable) for housewives, traders, travellers etc.  This activity is the main means for some rickshaw drivers to generate income to take care of themselves and their families and to access basic social services.  Although rickshaws are necessary and important, using them does expose users to a number of risks, particularly to the risk of accidents, which on occasion prove to be fatal.

This fact that this state of affairs persists in Cameroon is largely due to negligence or institutional ignorance of the facts relating to rural transport. We dare to hope that the call, made by the African Ministers for health and transport at the African Conference on Road Safety in Africa, held in Accra, for rural road safety to be taken specifically into account in development programmes, will be taken into consideration in the road safety programme currently being drawn up in Cameroon.  There are various risk factors affecting rickshaws - exposure, the behaviour of users and the road environment amongst others.

An issue of utmost importance is the exposure of women, young people and children when they are going to and returning from the plantations and markets.  In road safety terms, the word “exposure” refers to “the volume of journeys made”.  Here, we are taking it to mean the risk run by rickshaw users within the context of the mixed modes of transport and infrastructures available.  When women and children take crops from the plantations to the markets and households, they use the same trunk roads as motorised vehicles, in this instance cars and motorcycles.  The same is true of rickshaw drivers when they carry goods for traders, luggage for travellers or bags for housewives, from one place to another.  They are travelling alongside motorbikes and vehicles.  The same is true in all the départements (administrative areas) in the Western province.

the behaviour of users and the road environment: Travelling through rural areas on asphalted roads and using asphalted trunk roads puts rural populations at risk, when travelling to or from rural surroundings.  This is the case in commercial and agricultural transactions between towns and rural areas - when traders and female farmers take their crops or merchandise to households or to urban markets.  This is because neither the rickshaws nor the roads are suitably equipped in terms of safety.  Roads are not marked out for use by intermediate means of transport or for any other means of transport.  There are no road signs visible along the road.

The newly asphalted Dschang-Douala road, which passes through flat, open country, is a case in point.  Before they get to the tracks leading to the plantations, the women farmers and their children have to travel along the road in the face of oncoming, motorised traffic.  No specific arrangements have been made for the different types of traffic, and in particular IMTs, on this road.

Asphalting has upset the habits of people, who previously were dealing with vehicles that travelled at moderate speed and had the road to themselves, for their rickshaws and bicycles.  Since the road has been asphalted, the speed of traffic on it has greatly increased and they have to share the road with other, more dangerous, users.  Asphalted roads which cross rural areas are a major cause of fatal road accidents.  They require specifically designed engineering and appropriate educational activities need to be carried out post-construction.

The extent to which the rickshaw is used in this society makes the need to deal with the situation more urgent, as it is the means by which vulnerable rural populations provide for their own security.

This opinion piece was contributed by Vivien Meli , Sociologist, Université de Dschang, Cameroun
Contact: melvivien_03[at]yahoo.fr

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