CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

For the first six thousand years of urban life, no society was long able to maintain an urban percentage greater than from 5 to 10 percent ( Eleno,2019). Starting in late eighteenth- century England, however, one nation after another experienced an accelerating shift from rural to urban population. After several generations of rapid urbanization, the process leveled off toward a new equilibrium in which about three-quarters of the population lived in cities and many of the rest pursued city-related activities in smaller towns ( Eleno, 2019). During the last fifty or sixty years the highest rates of urbanization have been in the less economically developed regions of the world (Warren 2003). The start of this phenomenon coincided with when most countries in the African continent gained independence from the colonial powers of the North. New economic, administrative and educational structures were set up leading to the development of many towns and big villages into growth poles that attracted population from the more rural areas. In the 1970s, one in four people living in the developing countries were urban dwellers (Clive, 2000); in 2017, UNECA (Economic Commission for Africa) figures indicated that 38% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa was urbanized, higher than that of Asia 49.1%. By 2035, it is estimated that the rate of urbanization in Africa will double. This same trend prevails in Cameroon whose urban population in 1960 stood at 13.94%; in 2005 at 48.8% (RGPH , 2010) and 54.94% in 2016 with an urban growth rate of 3.63% (World Bank, 2016). This growth rate is even higher for some of the major towns of the country, for instance, Bamenda in North West Cameroon, the third most populous town, which recorded an urban growth rate of 4.9% in 2005(Fube,2019)  and the urbanized population in 2020 was 56.3% ( Worldometer, 2020).

According to the world Urban population perspective for 2018 Revision, summary published in 2019, 55% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. This population is expected to reach 68% by the year 2050, adding 2.5 billion to the world’s urban population, 90% if the increase is going to come from Asia and Africa.

 The implications of such rapid urban growth are far reaching considering the housing and food needs of the ever growing population. The influx of population into urban areas and the incapability of public supply systems and structures to meet up with the soaring demand for these basic needs has caused a gross mismatch between supply and demand (Kathmandu,2018). The contiguous villages to large urban center are increasingly faced with a mixed blessing of new marketing opportunities amidst increasing loss of farmland and farm labour owing to exurban growth. On the one hand there is a high demand for land: to construct new residences or speculators hold land in anticipation for future price hikes. This spurs neighbouring rural dwellers to sell off agricultural land to urban land speculators and individuals aspiring to own individual homes as the urban area sprawls. On the other hand, marketing opportunities for food stuffs increase as the rural population takes advantage of a growing market potential offered by the growing urban population (Kathmandu,2018). The question whether these marketing opportunities are to the benefit of rural dwellers remains unanswered to a large extent. The former is short-lived owing to the fact that most rural land owners permanently lose their land and chances of making money once the land is sold. The latter hinges on the former because the loss of the farmlands diminishes the agricultural potentials of the rural dwellers, the available market opportunities and consequently their principal means of survival. In the long run, these rural land vendors are plunged into a vicious cycle.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Bamenda city has seen the progressive deterioration in its environmental quality as a result of rapid and unplanned urbanization that took off since the early 80’s. This has greatly impact on the urban sprawl of the Bamenda town. The  failure in land market strategy accounting for long term economic misbalance in the society, crowding, accessibility, degradation of agricultural areas, and poor social infrastructure, loss of greenery and open spaces, fragmentation of land, destruction of flora and fauna, degradation of ecosystem, ground water recharge.

Bamenda citizens play a vital role in the urbanization on urban sprawl because they are ignorant of sustainable development, they are do not want to change.

The increase in people in the Bamenda town as a result of the availability of services like good education, business strategies, security, employment thus causing the rate of spread to either increase. The numerous services offered in Bamenda have somehow encouraged rural exodus and accelerated the urbanization process of Bamenda. People especially the youthful folk migrate into Bamenda in search of jobs and scholarly pursue. This net flow of population within the recent past has not been compensated for by an increase of or improvement in social infrastructure. The demand for low cost housing and social amenities such as roads, waste disposal sites, water as well as landed property has noticed an exponential increase since the 1980s. Varied forms of housing developments that are dependent on miniature, inaccessible and undulating footpaths have led to a situation of urban sprawl and an overall deterioration in the scenic beauty of Bamenda city. The devaluation of the CFA currency by 50% in the 1990s, increase in the price of building materials and a general increase in cost of a square foot of land have led to a situation of uncontrolled and illegal occupancy and an overall disorderliness in civil life as people are now seen to occupy high risk hill slope systems and swampy valleys more than ever before. The acquisition of such land is usually through mere land agreement and not through the complicated, expensive, bureaucratic and time consuming land title acquisition procedure whose cost could well be more than a hundred times higher than the value of land in such unstable zones. As a consequence to the above, the city of Bamenda is witnessing an ever increasing high in the number of natural hazards, which very often claim lives; a situation which if left unabated could plunge the city into an abyss of widening urban instability and  decay.

1.3. Research questions

1.3.1. Main Research Question

What are the patterns, challenges and prospects of the urban expansion and the proliferation of the new layouts in the Bamenda Municipality?

1.3.2. Specific Research Questions

What are the causes of urban expansion  and the proliferation of the new layouts in the Bamenda municipality?

What are the challenges of urban expansion and the proliferation of the new layout in the Bamenda municipality?

What are the strategies employed by stakeholders involved in the urban expansion and the proliferation of the new layout in the Bamenda municipality?

1.4. Research Objectives

1.4.1. Main Objectives

To investigate the patterns, challenges and prospects of urban expansion and the proliferation of new layouts in the Bamenda Municipality

1.4.2. Specific Research Objective

To determine the causes of urban expansion and the proliferation of the new layout in the Bamenda municipality

To examine the challenges of urban expansion and the proliferation of the new layout in the Bamenda municipality

To evaluate the strategies employed by stakeholders involved in the urban expansion and the proliferation of the new layout in the Bamenda municipality