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threatened our very existence. In some cases, natural resources such as soil and forest have been destroyed and fresh water supplies heavily polluted.
The major problem in the world today and Cameroon in particular is how best to utilize and sustain the natural environment for future generations and ours. As the world’s population continues to grow, increasing demand will be made on land that has not been touched. Also, there will be increased demand on natural resources such as minerals, wood and sea products. It is essential that the methods to be used to exploit these resources do not cause an imbalance in the already fragile ecosystem as we are already witnessing global warming (increase in temperature) in some parts of the world. The utilisation of all these resources must be accompanied by their conservation.
Natural resources like oil and natural gas, coal and metallic minerals are finite and their exploitation must be carefully controlled by states. As mature trees are felled, young trees should be planted to ensure that the forest reserves do not diminish. Governments all over the world should encourage tree farming as it is being done in the east
province of Cameroon. This tree farming should be done on large areas of land for posterity.
Marine animals are also irreplaceable. The seas, oceans and rivers can continue to provide man with energy. Most countries with large fishing industries have solve the problem of over fishing and marine
pollution by passing legislatures that guarantees all small fish which are caught must be return to the sea immediately to enable them reproduce themselves. But in Africa and Cameroon where the economic realities are different, it is difficult to implement such policies.
Man's attempt to survive and improve his living conditions has unfortunately lead to the pollution of his environment. This has upset nature's delicate ecological balance and unwittingly brought about a
threat to his very survival. The most important health hazard faced by Cameroon and most developing countries is the indiscriminate
dumping of garbage into the surrounding land. This has lead to land pollution. This dumping is not only unsightly and foul-smelling, but also breeds places for vectors of disease like mosquitoes, which cause malaria. In Cameroon, the government has gone a mile in solving this problem by hiring HYSACAM (Sanitation Company) for the collection of garbage and subsidizes the cost for all local councils to keep their municipalities clean.
Another major problem is air pollution. Industrialization in many countries is creating a grave problem for man and his future is at stake. Air pollution which is as a result of the combustion of fossil fuels and the discharge of toxic gases like carbon dioxide from chemical plants into the
surrounding atmosphere has serious health hazards (cancer and liver impairment) besides destroying plants foliage, reduce crop yield. Also, the more than extra ozone discharge from these plants has upset the
ozone layer in the atmosphere which serves as a protective blanket against cosmic rays from the sun. The effects of the ozone depletion are increase in temperature (global warming) in the North Pole, which
has seen the breaking and subsequent melting of large masses of ice from the Polar Regions. If measures are not taken to control the emission of these toxic gases, most coastal cities are in danger of flooding.
I want to believe that the effect of the global warming is causing more than enough havoc in Asia and Indonesia, and the Americas.
It is time for us Cameroonian to join this fight and improve our economy and conserve our resources and our natural environment for real development. To strive for development based on conscience and the respect of human values.
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Akwalla Johanness
I am a young development activist who believes that for youths to be successful, we need to come together and share ideas that are beneficial to the whole of humanity.
I strongly believe that for Africa to come out of the political hostage its finds itself, our leaders must stop to consider themselves as traditional rulers. We all know that traditional rulers rule for life, and power is passed on to their descendant. And I think that once our leaders stop to think of themselves as such and concentrate on development by investing into the education and basic health care and social services, then can we say we are on the right path to human development.
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