(Business in Cameroon) - Yesterday June 1, in Yaoundé, a seminar was launched to present the new sustainable dirt roads’ maintenance strategy developed by the Ministry of Public Works.

“The maintenance solutions implemented till now have demonstrated their limitations and call for a new efficient and sustainable strategy,” the ministry explains.

Till June 3, 2021, the participants (mostly the Ministry’s agents in charge of dirt roads’ maintenance and external experts) will be shown the various technics and innovative products to use to improve the capabilities of the loose material that usually constitute the course surface of the roads. They will also learn ways to limit the impacts of the traffic on those roads by controlling the circulation of lorries and managing the impact of weather conditions.

“The strategy must be supported by governance measures, which are namely utmost rigor in the completion of road construction works, the strict compliance with well-written project specifications and a densification of the emergency response network,” we learn.

According to the Ministry of Public Works, the feedbacks obtained in the first years of implementing the strategy will serve as a guideline for the elaboration of a dirt roads’ maintenance technical guide. The guide will point out the technical specifications, the problems encountered, and the appropriate solutions as well as implementation protocols for each ecological zone. That way, dirt roads’ lifetime will be extended at optimized costs.

The strategy is a good omen for the Cameroonian road network (113,716 linear kilometers), 93.6% of which are dirt roads. As the Ministry of Public Works indicates, the dirt roads have the most impacts on residents’ daily lives and their living standards greatly depend on their access to them.

BRM