Since the 1990s when the Cameroon government stopped providing free water in urban centres, most of the population of the commercial capital Douala have had to resort to digging their own wells, which are often contaminated. But four years ago, a shiny futurist-looking structure sprang up in Bessengué Akwa, one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods, and it is more than just a source of reliable water.

"The structure is truly beautiful," Rose Edouka, a resident of Bessengué Akwa told IRIN. "It has brought life to our neighbourhood."

The water fountain is unique. It sits under a polished metal frame covered by a bright green awning designed with the idea of a butterfly in mind. People go there not just to get water but to congregate, Edouka said. "It is something we are proud of in our community and we make sure it is well maintained."

Before construction commenced Cameroonian architect Danièle Diwouta-Kotto met with the community and asked people to envisage what the perfect water fountain would look like, Paulain Tchuenbou, a member of Doual'art, a local organisation promoting art and urban development which helped facilitate the meetings, told IRIN.

"People told the architect they wanted a water fountain that could serve as a public attraction and meeting place," he said. The architect produced various designs from which the community chose.

"We were consulted on every step which makes us now feel that we own the fountain and are responsible for it," the chief of Bessengué Akwa, Maurice Eyango Madengue told IRIN.

How it works

Inside the structure are benches and a small general store whose manager also manages the water.

"I make a little money from selling water as well as a little more from selling goods in my store," the manager, Esther Mateo told IRIN. "Everyone benefits - I get to make a living and the community gets constant access to water."

She sells the water for 1 CFA franc a litre (less that a third of 1 US cent). That is half the price water cost the community before the fountain had been built. "The nearest other fountain was more than a kilometre from here and sometimes we would go there and it would be closed," Edouka said.

Revenue from the new fountain is divided in three, with one part going to the manager, one part going to the water company and one part going to a local committee set up by the community to maintain the fountain.

"I hope they will find money to light the fountain," a resident David Ndame told IRIN. "Then it would be a great place to hang out at night."

Not-so-cheap imitations

Building the fountain cost around 2.6 million CFA francs (US$6,200) with funding from the European Union and the French Institut Régional de Coopération Développement in the region of Alsace.

The project was so successful that the World Bank decided to finance two similar fountains nearby, though these cost 4.5 million CFA francs (US$10,750) each and almost two years later they are yet to produce a single drop of water.

"The delays are worrying," an urban specialist for the World Bank Chantal Reliquet, told IRIN by email from Washington DC, but she added the Bank cannot be held responsible as "it did not manage the project only financed the [municipal] government".

The engineer in charge of the project for the municipal government, Simon Ekotto, said the problem is communications, particularly between the water company and the community. "There has been a lot of misunderstanding," particularly with reference to billing, he said.

But for the chief of Bessengué Akwa, Eyango Madengue, the problem is that the government failed to consult the community. "And I can't say we are optimistic that these fountains will ever become operational unless the community can take control."

The chairperson of Doual'art, Marylin Douala Bell, said the World Bank project was so ill-conceived that the Bank might as well have thrown its money out the window.

"We tried to warn them but they wouldn't listen," she said. "An essential element of a project like this is for the community to have responsibility and to be given the capacity to take control of all stages, from conception to management."

As Cameroon prepares for parliamentary elections coming up in June, human rights advocates complain that the country is far from upholding democratic principles, and in few places is this more evident than in the country’s prisons.

They describe detention facilities rife with overcrowding, violence, disease, extended pre-trial detention and torture. And instead of conditions improving, things are only deteriorating, according to Madeleine Afite of the Christian Action Against Torture (ACAT), a local nongovernmental organisation that works to improve prison conditions in the country.

“In the section where I was there were 50 of us to sleep in an area of five metres squared,” a former detainee, who gave his name as Lambert, told IRIN. “There was one tap for 1,200 people. Fed up, some prisoners refused to bathe and contracted scabies.”

The central prison in the capital, Yaounde, houses 4,000 inmates although it was built to hold 2,000, rights groups say. ACAT said a survey of 69 detention centres in the country showed there were few beds and prisoners ate a mixture of maize and beans. Otherwise, family members or religious organisations brought food to inmates. In some prisons, minors are detained with adults, ACAT said.

Afite noted that much of the problem with overcrowding stems from prolonged pre-trial detention. Rights advocates say some people languor for years behind bars waiting for a day in court that might not even yield a fair verdict because the country’s judicial system is hampered by corruption.

Overcrowding is supposed to be eased following the passage of a new penal code in January that limits the terms of provisional detention to a maximum of six months, renewable for another 6-12 months.

So far there has been little change, in part because of the huge judiciary backlog. An estimated 70 percent of inmates in Cameroonian detention facilities are awaiting trial, according to ACAT.

“There were proposals for prison reforms in 2004-2005 but there is no solution from the state on the situation of Cameroonian prisons,” Afite said. “Investigations have been conducted but have not yielded any results.”

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, agreed to multi-party democracy and all that it entailed, including respect for human rights and improved civil liberties, when he bowed to the continent’s democracy movement in the early 1990s.

But critics of his rule say neither respect for civil rights nor basic freedoms have improved. They note that security forces act with impunity, including in the country’s prisons, where human rights groups say torture is a commonplace.

The US State Department in its human rights report on Cameroon for 2006 pointed out alleged abuses in New Bell Prison in the city of Douala. The report said one common form of abuse included hanging prisoners from a rod and then beating them on the soles of their feet and genitals.

In addition, violence among inmates is rife.

“At night prisoners are piled up and cannot sleep,” one of the guards told IRIN. During the day, he said, tensions mount. “It doesn’t take a second of violence for one to be killed.”

ACAT said a lack of prison guards made it difficult to curb the violence. For example, it said, there are only 14 guards for the 4,000 detainees in the Yaounde prison. A third of the guards were suspended after a general strike in January.

Emmanuel Ngafesson, secretary of state in charge of maximum-security prisons, agreed that there were problems with overcrowding in the country’s detention centres and a lack of guards. He said the new penal code would help rectify the problem.

“Minor offences that used to result in incarceration, such as vagrancy or failure to present identification documents, will no longer be considered the same thing today,” he said.

As Cameroon prepares for parliamentary elections coming up in June, human rights advocates complain that the country is far from upholding democratic principles, and in few places is this more evident than in the country’s prisons.

They describe detention facilities rife with overcrowding, violence, disease, extended pre-trial detention and torture. And instead of conditions improving, things are only deteriorating, according to Madeleine Afite of the Christian Action Against Torture (ACAT), a local nongovernmental organisation that works to improve prison conditions in the country.

“In the section where I was there were 50 of us to sleep in an area of five metres squared,” a former detainee, who gave his name as Lambert, told IRIN. “There was one tap for 1,200 people. Fed up, some prisoners refused to bathe and contracted scabies.”

The central prison in the capital, Yaounde, houses 4,000 inmates although it was built to hold 2,000, rights groups say. ACAT said a survey of 69 detention centres in the country showed there were few beds and prisoners ate a mixture of maize and beans. Otherwise, family members or religious organisations brought food to inmates. In some prisons, minors are detained with adults, ACAT said.

Afite noted that much of the problem with overcrowding stems from prolonged pre-trial detention. Rights advocates say some people languor for years behind bars waiting for a day in court that might not even yield a fair verdict because the country’s judicial system is hampered by corruption.

Overcrowding is supposed to be eased following the passage of a new penal code in January that limits the terms of provisional detention to a maximum of six months, renewable for another 6-12 months.

So far there has been little change, in part because of the huge judiciary backlog. An estimated 70 percent of inmates in Cameroonian detention facilities are awaiting trial, according to ACAT.

“There were proposals for prison reforms in 2004-2005 but there is no solution from the state on the situation of Cameroonian prisons,” Afite said. “Investigations have been conducted but have not yielded any results.”

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, agreed to multi-party democracy and all that it entailed, including respect for human rights and improved civil liberties, when he bowed to the continent’s democracy movement in the early 1990s.

But critics of his rule say neither respect for civil rights nor basic freedoms have improved. They note that security forces act with impunity, including in the country’s prisons, where human rights groups say torture is a commonplace.

The US State Department in its human rights report on Cameroon for 2006 pointed out alleged abuses in New Bell Prison in the city of Douala. The report said one common form of abuse included hanging prisoners from a rod and then beating them on the soles of their feet and genitals.

In addition, violence among inmates is rife.

“At night prisoners are piled up and cannot sleep,” one of the guards told IRIN. During the day, he said, tensions mount. “It doesn’t take a second of violence for one to be killed.”

ACAT said a lack of prison guards made it difficult to curb the violence. For example, it said, there are only 14 guards for the 4,000 detainees in the Yaounde prison. A third of the guards were suspended after a general strike in January.

Emmanuel Ngafesson, secretary of state in charge of maximum-security prisons, agreed that there were problems with overcrowding in the country’s detention centres and a lack of guards. He said the new penal code would help rectify the problem.

“Minor offences that used to result in incarceration, such as vagrancy or failure to present identification documents, will no longer be considered the same thing today,” he said.