By SAH TERENCE ANIMBOM
“Living in the North West Region of Cameroon at these trying times of the scare of the Anglophone crisis that has gone from bad to worse with brutal deaths from the barrel of the gun recorded on a daily basis as well as deaths caused by torture from either the military or armed separatist fighters, with even more fear compounded by the outbreak of the corona virus that has set people in perpetual panic, and now a chronically epileptic power supply chain that has sent Bamenda city dwellers back to the days of candles and kerosene lamps, is about the worst moment to live through in a country”, Mr. Bernard, a Bamenda city dweller narrates to The SUN.
For over a month now, power supply has been very unstable, making life hard for the ordinary citizens in the North West Region of Cameroon. Lights go off for hours and sometimes for the whole day within the city of Bamenda and for weeks in the surrounding towns like Bambili, Ndop, Fundong, Belo, Wum, to name but these few.
The National power supply company ENEO has resorted to load shading which entails turning off electricity supply in most areas of the city and region at given moments so that other areas can have and giving it back at given moments which are often not really respected.
Priority in power supply is however given to the Bamenda Regional Hospital electricity line which supplies a very minimal population of the city and the Bamenda Up Station government residential area. Even when lights return in most cases, they are on for few minutes and keep ticking like the clock, on this minute and off the next. With very low voltage that is often accompanied by high current, many persons are complaining of their electrical appliances like television sets and refrigerators that have gone bad as a result of high current caused by low voltage.
Telephone network too has learned to go along with the lights especially network for internet connectivity that relies on optic fiber which also needs electricity supply in most cases that cannot be handled by some of the generators at the network stations. The generators at the network stations sometimes are unable to run due to fuel scarcity that often hits the region.
Businesses too have not found this new phenomenon helping out at all. The SUN Newspaper spoke to a cold store operator who regretted that he is forced to spend FCFA 50,000 to FCFA 75,000 a day on fuel for a generator to run his cold store. The SUN spoke to the Manager of a Hotel in Bamenda who expressed real dissatisfaction with the frequent light cuts. “It is a terrible situation I must say. We do not notice the light cuts here because of our automatic generator but we feel the pinch in our pockets because now we are forced to spend from FCFA 75,000 to 100, 000 on fuel every day. What is even more annoying is that after spending that much on fuel because you have not had constant power supply, ENEO still brings you the same exorbitant bill as they bring when there is at least a stable supply.”
Many institutions are taking measures to prevent the spread of the corona virus by stepping up on sanitation practices. Hand sanitizers have been placed in receptions of some hotels and public places while some public institutions have instituted public hand washing spaces.
The city of Bamenda is however quickly adapting to the new phenomenon of no handshakes as many now greet with the elbows, knuckles and feet. The culture of using hand sanitizers has increased within the last one week while the culture of drinking sachet whisky is back on the rise due to the belief that strong drinks kill the virus.