Indigenous Villagers Set Pace in Plastic Waste Management, Climate Action in Buea-Cameroon  

By Jabi Katy Chale

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In Buea, a town of about 200,000 inhabitants, a small community called Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume is the torchbearer of the city’s battle against plastic pollution and climate change. No one dares to throw garbage in the gutters in Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume, unlike in other parts of Buea, where plastics and other forms of environmental pollution have corrupted the town’s beauty.

Pascal Motsebo, the community manager of Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume, says the secret behind the plastic-free community is concerted effort: sensitization and community engagement. Aside from instituting warning signs against dumping around the village, Motsebo says they have a mechanism of punishing people who litter the streets.

“Before now, these gutters were seriously filled with litters, but since we put these warnings, we no longer have dirt in the gutters. If you find any dirt in the gutter it means it is brought by rain water,” said Motsebo, pointing to a pristine-looking roadside gutter.

Measures Against Pollution

Across the community, warning posts regularly remind passers-by with stern warnings: “No dumping of dirt here.” Defaulters could pay fines of up to FCFA 25,000.

“We caught two children some time back and their parents were summoned to the traditional council. They didn’t exactly pay the said amount but they were still sanctioned with strict warning,” said Pascal Motsebo.

The warnings instituted by the community leaders in January 2024, coupled with regular community cleanup exercises, are resolving the community’s long battle against plastics and other forms of environmental pollution.

The environment at Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume sharply contradicts the reality in the larger metropolis of Buea where heightened levels of plastic pollution have been blamed on people’s poor waste disposal habits.

A study conducted in 2022 by Eike Albrecht, Agbortoko Ayuknkem and Enow Ernest revealed that waste management in Buea remained at a rudimentary level and people were very ignorant about their responsibility in combating pollution.

The Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume community appears to be implementing the recommendations of this study, which sued for increased community sensitization and concerted effort in combatting environmental pollution.

The Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume community is a three-in-one quarter in Mokunda village (fondly called Buea Town) in Buea, South West region of Cameroon. The area is controlled by a 25-member traditional council with the quarter head at the top of its affairs. The traditional council reports to the paramount chief of Buea, HRH Chief Robert Esuka Endeley.

This decentralized management structure enables the effective coordination of activities aimed at fighting against plastic pollution in the community. Every community member is obliged to participate in community works, with the promise of a penalty for defaulters.

“We organize community works about twice a month where we clean our community and rehabilitate some road paths and other community works, and every household has to participate,” says Emmanuel Ngonjini, Project Manager for the Traditional Council.

“Those who do not participate receive a sanction from the traditional council. It is an aged tradition of ours,” he adds.

The rush to combat environmental pollution and climate change in Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume community was necessitated by some climate change-induced events that devastated the community over the past years.

One of them was a flash flood from the Mount Cameroon, which ravaged homes and other properties in the community and other parts of Buea on March 18, 2023. At least two people died.

Local authorities and environmental experts blamed the disaster on the blockage of gutters by plastics and other garbage, as well as deforestation activities on the Mount Cameroon forest, which borders the Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume community.

Local Actions for Climate Impact Mitigation

The community has also witnessed a couple of landslides, the latest occurring in August 2023. Despite being located around the highest peak in West and Central Africa, the community continues to grapple with increased heat levels which contradicts its previously cool climate.

“We have noticed that nights over here are getting hotter than before, and we also have scarcity of water,” laments Charles Ndifor Ngonjinj, Advisor to the Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume Traditional Council.

“All of these give us the idea that there is actually climate change and occurrences around us speak for themselves. We had a recent landslide in August 2023. It is a re-occurrent phenomenon here.”

These challenges have put them on high alert and even pushed the community to seek external help from local non-governmental organizations championing environmental protection.

The community recently partnered with the Association for Community Awareness (ASCOA), for a tree-planting exercise aimed to combat deforestation and climate change.

ASCOA’s Environmental Head, Ruth Enjema, said she was surprised when they received an invitation from the Quarter Head of Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume, Sango Joke Robert, asking them to extend their tree-planting initiative to the community. At that time, ASCOA was leading a tree-planting exercise around the Bwitingi environs, Buea, to commemorate World Environment Day .

“Upon that contact, we met with the community for visibility studies and we saw that indeed, it is important for us to come and educate them on tree planting and carry out the tree planting exercise alongside the community members,” said Ruth Enjema.

“Together, we have planted over 250 fruit and shade trees, which are environmentally friendly. We have shown them how to select, where to select the sites, where to plant and where not to plant. And we at ASCOA are very happy because they seem so passionate about it.”

As early as 6 am on June 17, 2024, the men in the community had already convened in the compound of the Quarter Head waiting for the ASCOA team. After a sensitization talk from ASCOA’s environmental expert on the importance of trees and how to plant and care for them, the planting exercise commenced.

Both the young and old were involved in planting the over 250 trees, with the supervision from the experts. As the men engaged in the tree planting, the women were in the kitchen preparing a surprised meal for the ASCOA team.

“We believe with the planting of these trees. We can mitigate climate change over here, and we are also hoping the roots of the trees can help mitigate the occurrences we have had. Our ideas are actually based on how we can improve the welfare of the inhabitants of the community, be it health, environment or community development,” said Charles Ndifor Ngonjinj.

Before inviting ASCOA members to the community, Charles Ndifor said they had already been planting trees at the local level to fight against climate change.

“It really shows that the people are aware of climate change, they are aware that when they plant trees, it will mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. it will reduce overheating; the air will be purified and also regulate precipitation,” he said.

Towards Emulating Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume community

In Buea, authorities believe other communities can emulate the Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume community to combat the town’s plastic pollution and climate change problems.

“I think it is very laudable,” said Francis Lyonga, who works with the service for sustainable development at the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development (MINEPDED) in the South West Region.

“It shows that the work that environmental stakeholders have been doing, the sensitization, has been working. The communities are now aware and they are interested. I think the more communities that become like this, the better it will be,” Francis Lyonga added.

The fight against climate change is not a one-day affair for the Eweyi-Wondo-Mosume community. After keeping their gutters free from plastics and planting trees to reforest their community, they continue sensitizing one another through social media groups.