CHAPTER ONE.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

1.1 Background to the study.

The activities of structuring the earth with architectural design by human beings started many years back. With regard to the high rate of urbanization worldwide, the planet earth in the 21^st Century is undergoing dramatic processes of transformation and expansion, hence the need sustainable development. The word sustainable development was first published by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED): development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987), Sustainability has become a globally recognized key feature in the urban planning discourse. The three dimensions of sustainable development are environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Of these, environmental sustainability faces challenges posed by environmental degradation and resource shortages caused by continuous population growth and urbanization globally.  Today, 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and it is expected that about 68% of people will be living in cities by 2050 (United Nations, 2012a).  Without effective urban planning and development, rapid urbanization can increase and exacerbate traffic congestion, air and water pollution, solid waste hazards, excessive noise, the number of energy-inefficient buildings and a lack of green spaces.

Urban planning as an inclusive, integrated decision-making process can give a voice to those who often do not participate in urban and territorial decision-making and respond to the needs and vulnerabilities of different population groups (particularly the urban poor, women, children, older adults, informal sector workers and migrants). Thus, applying a health ‘lens’ in urban and territorial planning (UN Habitat, 2017) can reveal synergies to achieve environmental, economic, health and social targets, to ensure that the New Urban Agenda (NUA), a global agenda for sustainable urban development and management that complements the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN Habitat 2016) delivers healthy, safe, inclusive, and equitable cities. Cities can play vital roles in addressing health and social inequity; and greater policy coordination on housing and urban planning could contribute to improving health outcomes, as well as reducing neighbourhood crime and increasing economic development (Rudolph et al. 2013).

Increasing density is of relevance unless conviviality is the outcome rather than mixed and overcrowded urban living condition with non-respect of planning regulations. It will take the ingenuity and active collaboration of planners, architects and urban citizens to ensure that lively, varied, convivial and safe urban environments are created. It paves the way for division, better still a balancing of urban power between the elected officials, town planning technocrats, Non-governmental organization and civil society groups because of the inefficiency of the national and local administration in charge of urban planning and management (World Bank, 2006; Baron, 2006). With regard to this, it is therefore vital that appropriate policies and popular initiatives should be put in place. Big towns and cities are not going to disappear but the way they operate can certainly be much damaging and wasteful than it is now if effective rules and regulations that govern them are not implemented. Settlements can and should be organised in a way which will permit individual citizens feel that they have a stake in decision that shape lives.

If Africa’s rapidly growing urban population is to enjoy living in safe and sustainable cities by 2030, policy strategies need to measurably improve living conditions and, subsequently, the health of the population, particularly the urban poor. The opportunities for intersectoral approaches through the coordination of health enhancing housing, urban planning and environmental health regulation in African cities, are particularly important for contributing towards efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, which seeks to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ (United Nations, 2017).

The urban population of Cameroon doubled within a period of 30 years after independence moving from 28.3% in 1976 to 44.3% in 2005 (Fombe et al, 2012). This has enhanced rapid urbanization in Cameroonian towns and cities (Yaoundé, Douala, Bafoussam, Limbe, Buea, Garoua Bamenda and so on) resulting to non-respects of planning policy by encroachment into sensitive areas (hazard prone zone) due to high quest of land for agriculture, construction and so on. Recent evidence suggests that migration away from the largest cities is continuing (Kimengsi, et al, 2017)

The existing laws and regulations of Cameroon highlights a high level of activity within the planning side and the lack of relevant action on the regulation of the technical side of building constructions and environmental management. Various newspapers report regular fire outbreaks and building collapses as evidence of non-respect for, or poor implementation of, existing building regulations rather than a consequence of the absence of such regulations. (Guebediang, 2016).

Town planning regulations in Cameroon was organized immediately after the Second World War and by 1966 the national parliament had passed the Law No 66/10 of 18 November 1966, which laid down the urban planning regulations for the French-speaking part of the land (Tome, 2011). The law came into force promptly with the implementation of a decree passed by the prime minister on 27 March 1968. That initial law was in place until the reunification of western and eastern Cameroun in May 1972. Upon the reunification of Cameroon, the planning law was revised in 1973 and the Ordinance No. 73/20 regulating urban planning in the United Republic of Cameroon was enacted in replacement of the 1966 law. It is observed that despite the existence of that planning law, there was no change in building practices as people continued to build without regard for the existing planning laws (Tene et al, 2017). In fact, it was noted in 1989 that in breach of the 1973 ordinance, which required all local councils to develop and implement their specific town planning documents, most of the councils failed to put their procedures in place. The data available at the MINDUH reveal that in 1989 only 11 councils had an approved Town Plan. The situation persisted and became critical in early 2000.This prompted the government to call for an updated regulation geared towards sustainability. That action led to the introduction to the parliament of a White Paper, which in turn led to the enactment of the “Urbanism Code”, a building Law No. 2004/003 of 21 April 2004 regulating Urban Planning in Cameroon. Despite the dire situation on the ground, the government took four years to issue the full implementation decrees. (They finally happened in 2008.) Those decrees are: (a) Decree No. 2008/0736/PM laying down conditions for drawing up and revising town planning documents; (b) Decree No. 2008/0737/PM laying down safety, hygiene and sanitation rules applicable to construction works; (c) Decree No.2008/0738/PM organizing land-use procedures and processes; (d) Decree No.2008/0739/PM laying down land-use and construction rules (replaced by Decree No.2016/3058/PM of 28 July 2016) and (d) Decree No. 2008/0740/PM setting rules on penalties in the event of breach of town planning rules. This law is currently the main regulatory tool in terms of planning in the country. Another important instrument is Law No.98/015 of 14 July 1998 relating to institutions classified as dangerous, and improper. Alongside the above legal instruments are other regulations drawing directly on the authority of the MINDUH as well as other instruments placed under the authority of the Ministry of Environment such as Law No. 96/12 laying down the framework on the management of the environment with its implementation Decree No. 2005/0577/ PM; Law No. 89/27 regulating toxic waste, and Law No. 98/005 concerning the water regime. Others are Order No. 0070/MINEP, by the Ministry of Environment and Nature Conservation, fixing the different categories of operations subject to an impact assessment prior to their execution; Law No 98/006 relating to tourist activity and its execution decree No. 99/443/PM (Tome, 2011).

In general, Cameroon’s 2011 Land Use Planning law provides a supportive framework for modern, inclusive, multi-disciplinary, cross-sectoral planning. Principles defined by law are broadly in line with the generally accepted principles for land use planning (GIZ 2012, FAO 2012). The Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT) is mandated to guide the management and sustainable development of land. Contracts for preparation of the National Schema and Zoning Plan and all 10 Regional land use ‘schemas’ have been tendered out to private contractors in the past 2 years (Fomete et al, 2018). But no land use policy, strategy, detailed legal texts or methodological guidelines have yet been published to guide their preparation thereby paving the way for the non-respect of town planning regulation which we are experiencing today. It is now urgent to clarify how the different land use plans will be aligned horizontally between sectors, and vertically between national, regional and local land use planning instruments. This alignment must be constructed simultaneously with preparation of the plans in a pragmatic and iterative approach

Development is ahead of planning in most towns of the less developed world and therefore there has not been a success in attaining its objectives of creating good living urban areas compared to developed countries where planning regulations and spatial plans have been key to orderly, attractive, safe, and healthy cities (NMP, 1993). The effectiveness of town planning regulations as a tool for environmental planning and management is more of theory than practice in Cameroon and Bamenda III municipality in particular given the fact that the town stands at the crossroads of an avalanche of environmental catastrophes due to its intrinsic physical setting (topography, geologic structure, the degree of slope, soil characteristics and rainfall).

Bamenda III municipality is made up of seven neighbourhood, headed by a Mayor duly elected by the municipal councillors. Municipal responsibilities are to improve the living conditions of their citizens by making sure they have access to basic socio-urban infrastructures (Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon, 2009). However. It is the City Mayor who administers the city.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT.

Today’s towns and cities are under pressure to keep pace with rapid urbanization, poverty and inequality, pollution, climate change and other economic forces. Outstanding truth indicates that town planning regulation and environmental management is at a decline all over the world. Towns are experiencing expansion in endless peripheries, residential areas are on an increase, and public spaces are diminishing. This is a direct effect of ineffective implementation and enforcement of evidence-based town planning regulations and environmental management. Urban laws and regulations are weakly linked to sustainable urbanization. Housing standards are largely unaffordable, located in peripheral areas, increasing the costs of urbanization and exacerbating socio-economic inequalities. The inability to address these challenges and manage cities in a way that can guide them towards a planned and sustainable urban future adversely affects the outcomes of urbanization.

Bamenda III municipality is characterised by an uncoordinated urban growth with non-respect of town planning regulation and environmental management. Land use development is being carried out in unauthorised locations. This is contrary to the land use zoning in the Master plan of the Bamenda city (like Nkwen, Mendankwe, and Mankon). Urban planning and zoning of land use is slow given the current urbanization rate and urban development in the Bamenda III Sub-Division. Fombe & Balgah (2012), noted that approximately 60% of the land converted to urban uses in the process of urban expansion in Cameroon is agriculturally productive land. It is thus noted that there is an increase in urbanization in Bamenda town which is inconsistent with sustainable urban planning scheme, (Park, 2001, in Kometa & Ndi (2012). Development of settlement and other land use activities in an uncoordinated manner in the Bamenda III municipality has inhibited an effective implementation of current land use policies and thus will continue to degrade the landscape, natural resources, and the scenery, health and beauty of the community if a critical evaluation of these issues are not taken into consideration.

Bamenda III Sub-Division according to the master plan of the town has been demarcated into developed and non-developed areas. With the rise in the population of the town, human development has been extended to non-developed areas and non-habitable areas such as; steep slope (around; Sisia and Abangoh), which are prone to geomorphological hazards; and wetland, ( around; Mulang, Mbelem, and below Foncha) which are prone to flooding due to wetland reclamation, thereby violating the planning regulation that prohibits setting out structures and settlements in an ecological sensitive areas or zones. This action is the gateway for the occurrence of natural hazards if not taken into consideration, according to Nymbo (2010), have the potential of plunging Bamenda III into an Abyss of environmental problems that might claim many lives.

Bamenda III municipality over the years experienced an increase in build-up areas and other human activities tripled at the detriment of forested land, agricultural land, wetlands, orchards, buffer zones and greenery. The urban density of the Bamenda III municipality has worsen because of immigration of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and land reclamation for instance has become a topic of the day, despite the warnings prescribed by the stakeholders in the Bamenda III municipality on billboards; “No Reclamation Here”. According to Kometa & Ndi (2012), many housing structures have been erected where they are not supposed to be or even where they be, they do not conform to the laid down norms. Encroachments and invasion into swampy areas, and riverbanks leads to; siltation of riverbed, increase risk of flooding, eating up of buffers zones, destruction of wetlands ecosystem services to man, and the destruction of aquatic lives. If these issues are not check in the Bamenda III Sub-Division, then the scenery and the environmental lifespan of the municipality has a limit and the applicability of the concept of environmental sustainability is put to question. 

The Bamenda III Sub-Division which lies at an avalanche crossroad that leads to many small towns in the Northwest Region needs much attention as town planning is concern. Less attention is being paid to town planning by stakeholders right from national to local levels as a means of attaining good living environmental conditions which has resulted to the unattractiveness of the municipality. This is evidence in, poor sanitation, unplanned settlements characterized by crowding, poor drainage and poor accessibility. This has been reported in the local media of Abakwa FM radio, Radio hot cocoa, Ndefkam Radio and so on, on how town planning and environmental management is at a decline in Bamenda.

To realise this research project, the following research questions, objectives and hypotheses was established.

1.3 MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION.

The main research question of this study is; Does Bamenda III Subdivision have a comprehensive urban and environmental management problem?

1.3.1 Specific Research Questions.

To extend this study on ASSESSING STATE POLICIES ON URBAN PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN THE BAMENDA III SUB-DIVISION, the following specific research questions were developed;

• what factors are responsible for the non-respect of urban planning regulations in the Bamenda III Sub-Division?
• What is the legal framework that binds town planning and environmental management in the Bamenda III subdivision?
• What are the attempts to address the issues of non-respect of urban planning regulations in the Bamenda III Sub-Division?
  • MAIN RESEARCH OBJECTIVES.

The main research objective of this study is to Examining comprehensive urban and environmental management problems in Bamenda III Subdivision.

• Specific Research Objectives.

To extend this study on assessing state policies on urban planning and environmental management in the Bamenda III Sub-Division, the following specific research was developed;

• To identify the factors responsible for the non-respect of urban planning regulations in the Bamenda III Sub-Division.
• To investigate legal framework that binds town planning and environmental management in the Bamenda III subdivision.
• Suggesting measures to address the issues of non-respect of urban planning regulations in the Bamenda III Sub-Division and other communities.