New Walk Ways in New Bell

In New Bell and other quarters of Douala, the sewers alongside the streets are completely open and therefore filled with wandering garbage from the streets. The covers on the open sewers, whether they are made from wooden planks or concrete elements, have often been taken away, burned as fuel wood, or are just damaged by usage. They have not been replaced. In the rainy season, this non-functioning draining system often causes huge floods, and affects public health seriously. In the rainy season, the garbage that causes the sewer system to be clogged, rises together with the water level, allowing the water from the sewers to spread into the streets and into the houses, and allowing the water to mix with the fresh water resources.

On the New Walk Ways, large scale text fragments are made, using spray paint. To allow the rain to enter the sewer system but to prevent the garbage from entering it, small holes are drilled in the planks re-writing the texts fragments and making them sustainable. The collection of text fragments relate to the different faces of water, to its qualities as a substance, solid, liquid or gas, to its movement, to its reflective nature and its ability to follow any shape that contains it and still be of immense force.

Kamiel Verschuren installed about 200 meters of coverage on the open sewer system just before the SUD in 2010 and another 300 meters in May 2011.

More information on New Walk Ways in New Bell

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New Walk Ways in New Bell was financially supported by FondsBKVB

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