A Probe into the Rate of Access to Primary Socio-Economic Amenities in Cameroon for the Period 1990 to 2035

Abstract

This paper analyses the potential access in Cameroon to primary socio-economic amenities, such as safe water, sanitation and electricity, and the extent to which the provision of these amenities in the context of the 2015 millennium development goals and Cameroon’s Vision 2035 policy document for an emerging economy may reduce the suffering of people. A trend analysis was conducted, comparing the expected rates of access to the actual rates, using descriptive and inferential statistics on secondary data derived from the data banks of official sources. It was found that the demand for safe water, sanitation and electricity is largely unsatisfied, and that target rates of access to these socio-economic amenities are unlikely to be achieved by the 2015 deadline of the millennium development goals or by the 2035 deadline of Cameroon’s Vision 2035 policy document for an emerging economy, despite the availability of a copious volume of water that is crucial to improving access to these amenities. This paper further shows that average rates of access to safe water, sanitation and electricity differ at first view, but the real difference is only evident between rates of access to water and sanitation on the one hand, and to water and electricity on the other hand, after conducting pairwise post-hoc tests. As this trend of events was found to continue, further investment in the provisioning of safe water, sanitation and electricity services, to achieve an average aggregate rate of access of at least 70% for the three primary socio-economic amenities in Cameroon, is recommended in this paper, in addition to the judicious execution of the vast capital projects initiated by government.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n9p317