Makeshift restaurants, water, hygiene in Bamenda

Roadside restaurants have invaded Bamenda lately and the operators seem to be making brisk business. These eating places are sprouting along the streets and street junctions every day and the worry is the hygiene and sanitation around the places where they are located and the quality of water they serve.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that for some time now, taps in Bamenda have been running brownish water which is posing a health problem.

While some customers complain of the dirty nature of some of the makeshift restaurants and the nature of water used to wash plates and cups, Anderson Cheolo, a student, said some of the roadside restaurants are okay. He says the only problem is the quality of water served by some food vendors. Cheolo averred that he and his friend ate food but were unable to drink water because it appeared not to be of good quality.

Cheolo says he chose the roadside restaurant for convenience. “I was hungry and when I saw the restaurant very close to the road, I could not pass,” he intimated.

A restaurant operator at City Chemist Bamenda, Belvis Ambit, serves food items like corn-fufu and vegetable, rice and stews, pepper soup, water-fufu and eru or okra soup, each at FCFA 500. Her major problem, she says, is water. She said there are no public taps hence she has to buy water from people’s compounds.

Another food vendor, who preferred not to be named, said she chose selling beside the road because it easily attracts customers. According to her, people passing along the road can easily see her display of food flasks and visit the place when they are hungry. She sells corn-fufu and huckleberry, yam and ndole, rice and stew and the prices vary depending on the quantity the customer demands.

“However, some people eat and leave without paying since I am alone here. Others eat and when it is time to pay, they insult me and say I should have told them the price before serving the food”.

“Bamenda water is very dirty these days and my customers complain and tell me to buy Tangui mineral water. I cannot, because I do not make enough profit. I even serve rice at the paltry sum of FCFA 100 because Bamenda people complain a lot about poverty,” she revealed.

Cook and nutritionist, Stephen Neba Amabo, at Dreamland Restaurant in Bamenda, observes that it is good for people to eat balance diets. “A balance diet is a complete meal where you start with a salad to give appetite, the main dish to fill the empty stomach and then fruits to ease digestion. It is advisable to eat light meals at night like omelets, fried plantains or even fruits to ease digestion rather than heavy meals like water-fufu, achu, corn-fufu, which can cause slow digestion,” Amabo advises.

He says that it is not a healthy practice to drink water immediately after eating, especially, hot meals. Hot meals, he said, open up body pores and when you drink cold water immediately, it might affect you negatively in the long run.

He maintains that it is good for people to eat in standard restaurants so that they can be advised on good nutrition, thereby, avoiding food poisoning. Though not everybody is rich enough to eat in big and good restaurants, Bamenda inhabitants are advised to stay off food that is exposed to flies.