University Teaching Hospital surroundings become public urinary

The surroundings of the University Teaching Hospital, CHU, in the Yaounde VI area have, in the last five years, become a refuse ground and urinal for passersby, The Post has observed.

This observation has also been recorded from some patients who have been visiting the hospital for consultation. Reacting to the issue, one Yaounde inhabitant, George Tankeu, decried the situation.

“I have grown up knowing that the surroundings of a hospital are supposed to be very clean, I don’t know why the hospital authorities have not put up any notice prohibiting people from urinating or disposing of waste in the area.”

He wondered how people who sell food and other items around the area sit down and watch people coming to urinate and throw dirt around with indifference. He has been consulting at the hospital since he started working in Yaounde seven years ago, knowing that this is one of the best in the country.

To him, the entrance of and frontage of the hospital often stinks, to the point that people find it difficult to stand there to wait for taxis or chat, especially in the morning since the place is used in the night as a public toilet.

Describing the entrance of the hospital, Tankeu said: “Looking at the walls from a distance, it would be impossible for one not to notice the urine marking. When you get closer, the stench of urine can make you mad. What marvels me most is the fact that people sell around there”.

Flavien Merlin Keumadjeu, a call box owner in the vicinity averred, "It is not easy to stay in such an environment everyday from morning to evening. Conscious of the fact that I need to do something so that I could afford my needs, I am compelled to work in this condition. This is the best position I have found, so far. I know I would not be here forever, so I continue struggling while nurturing hope."

To reduce the risk of picking up any disease and to reduce the pungent urine odour, Keumadjeu throws water containing detergents every morning around before installing his call box.

One of the major causes of this is the presence of numerous bars adjacent the hospital entrance. Void of toilets, the bar visitors use the hospital surroundings as a urinal.

Describing the behaviour of these people who use the hospital surroundings as a urinal, Keumadjeu said the bar visitors cross the road, act as if there are no people around and starts urinating.

“Youth are not the only ones involved in this terrible act; some men actually park their cars and come to this area to ease themselves. I have on several occasions been threatened because I tried to dissuade people from urinating here."

On their part, hospital authorities continue to blame those who sell around. When The Post contacted one of the secretaries at the director’s office, he said: “the sellers at the entrance are partially to be blamed as far as the hygiene of the hospital’s fence is concerned.

The hospital authorities have nothing to do in the matter as most of these things happen in the night and since the interior is clean, things can move on.

The town council is the body that is supposed to handle this problem by putting public toilets, especially for people who drink in bars, given the fact that their desire to urinate is always very strong and their mentalities low.

One student at the Yaounde I University attached to the hospital, Lucien Bodo, holds that the odour does not reach inside the hospital.

“If individuals urinate or keep the frontage of the hospital dirty, it doesn’t mean that those inside are affected. The absence of public toilets around town is also a reason for such a mess. When we look around, we can see many bars which are always crowded. If you get closer, you will discover that a good number of them are pot-bellied fellows who drink a crate of beer in one sitting,” he adds.

He asked where these drunks are expected to put themselves at ease when they are pressed, knowing that most drinking spots have no urinals. They can only go towards places where no one can see their private organs and that wall is the nearest. In all, there is still much to be done to put an end to this misbehavior since it is not only in Yaounde, but a Cameroonian habit.