Cameroon bridge debacle spells export chaos

Next year is going to be tough for exporters in Cameroon - and all because of a one-kilometre stretch of road.

Nearly half the produce exported from the country has to cross a long bridge over the river Wouri to get to the port in Douala.

" It's going to take a lot of organisation to ensure the future of Cameroon's exports can be guaranteed "
Hartmut Goeritz

The bridge is crumbling and repairs are scheduled to start in February and will last for at least six months.

The repairs are going to cause chaos since the bridge is one of only two routes to the port.

Squeeze

On a typical day the Wouri bridge is packed with taxis, buses and lorries and is only one step away from gridlock.

It's designed for two lanes of traffic with a railway track running down the middle, but frustrated drivers squeeze into every available space to create extra lanes.

They drive along the railway track and swerve out of the way should a train approach.

Even on a good day it can take up to an hour to cross the bridge - and that's without any roadworks.

Long-term problem

The plan is to stop the trains, close half the bridge at a time and force all the traffic onto the other half.

The thousands of taxis which cause most of the congestion will be banned from using the bridge and lorries will only be able to cross at night.

Bodo Heleras, a technical manager at the port, says this is just a temporary solution.

"What they really need is a new bridge. They considered keeping this one open while they built another one, but it's too expensive - who is going to pay?" he said.

Resorting to barges?

Cameroon's exporters are preparing for the worst, especially those in the banana business.

" Potentially it's going to slow down our entire business in a country where, frankly, it's slow enough already "
Mark Furniss

"We're very concerned about bananas," said Mr Heleras, who worked for 20 years at the vast Del Monte plantation in the West.

"We have about 20 containers per day coming in and they can't sit for hours in traffic. We may have to use barges to get them here on time," he explained.

Hartmut Goeritz from one of Cameroon's leading shipping lines says the port may have to become a 24 hour operation to cope.

"45% of exports come across the bridge - bananas, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber - and that's not including the produce like cotton from Chad," Mr Goeritz said.

"It's going to take a lot of organisation to ensure that the future of Cameroon's exports can be guaranteed".

Slowdown

Many major companies are having to rethink their operations.

"Most of the cocoa and half of the coffee has to come across this bridge," says Mark Furniss, a buyer for ED&F Man.

Mr Furniss' firm is considering renting a warehouse on the other side of the river because they don't want to have trucks sitting idle.

"We have to rent trucks, pay the drivers and get cash back into the bush as quickly as we can."

No laughing matter

"Potentially it's going to slow down our entire business in a country where, frankly, it's slow enough already".

The fact that one set of roadworks could be causing so many powerful multi-national companies to bite their nails in worry seems almost laughable.

But Cameroon's exporters are not laughing - they're taking that one kilometre of road very seriously indeed.