Assessing the Impacts of Urban Sprawl on Suburban Villages in the Bamenda Metropolitan Periphery, North West Cameroon

Eleno Manka’A Fube

doi:10.22158/uspa.v2n2p87

Abstract

Man has been and remains mobile, conquering and impacting every space he occupies. Man’s impact on space has been more accentuated since the 20th century than erstwhile in history, owing to demographic explosion and more advanced technological innovations. Urban space and adjoining lands are impacted most compared to the rural milieu. This study examines the ramifications of rapid and disordered urbanisation on peripheral villages to the city of Bamenda. This is crucial in understanding the threats and consequences of the phenomenon of unending urbanisation on contiguous agricultural land. The trend of urbanisation and resultant impacts were ascertained by analysing data drawn from national census figures, LANDSAT satellite images and suitable field surveys. Analyses revealed that a growth of 14.6% of the population between 1973 and 2018 produced a corresponding sprawl of 97.54% of the spatial extent of Bamenda metropolis, which presently covers 40.96 times the spatial area it occupied in 1973. This has grave repercussions for contiguous agricultural land and urban food security. The paper posits that a scrupulous compliance with existing urban master plans and implementation of carefully designed policies to protect agricultural land are inevitable in checking urban growth and its induced effects; and guaranteeing urban food security.

Highlights

During the last fifty or sixty years the highest rates of urbanisation have been in the less economically developed regions of the world
The paper posits that a scrupulous compliance with existing urban master plans and implementation of carefully designed policies to protect agricultural land are inevitable in checking urban growth and its induced effects; and guaranteeing urban food security
Considering that urbanisation is one of the driving forces of the development of the planet in the 21st century (UNECA, 2017) and is unlikely to halt in the foreseeable future, it is vital for governments of the South to adopt policies that target potential solutions that are beneficial to the urban, suburban and rural areas alike

Summary

Introduction

During the last fifty or sixty years the highest rates of urbanisation have been in the less economically developed regions of the world. By 2035, it is estimated that the rate of urbanisation in Africa will double This same trend prevails in Cameroon whose urban population in 1960 stood at 13.94%; in 2005 at 48.8% (RGPH (Note 1), 2010) and 54.94% in 2016 with an urban growth rate of 3.63% (World Bank, 2016). On the one hand there is a high demand for land: to construct new residences or speculators hold land in anticipation for future price hikes This spurs neighbouring rural dwellers to sell off agricultural land to urban land speculators and individuals aspiring to own individual homes as the urban area sprawls. On the other hand, marketing opportunities for food stuffs increase as the rural population takes advantage of a growing market potential offered by the growing urban population The question whether these marketing opportunities are to the benefit of rural dwellers remains unanswered to a large extent. These rural land vendors are plunged into a vicious cycle

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