Guest Corner
My Visit to the Central African Republic
My Air Afrique left Abidjan at 13.30. It was well past 23.00 and pretty dark outside when I arrived at the capital of Central African Republic, Bangui. The plane took off and landed repeatedly stopping over at Lome (Togo), Douala (Cameroon), and Ndjamena (Chad), with passengers getting off and on. I was mentally as well as physically tired. Compared to a convenient non-stop 6 hours flight from Abidjan to Paris, the long tedious journey made me realize that in Africa, a short distance does not guarantee a quick arrival.
The hotel I stayed in was, as usual, the Sofitel. There is the Ubangui river flowing by the side of the hotel. The opposite side of the river is the north end of Zaire. The river goes down south and near the Equator joins the Zaire (Congo) river.
The river in this country should be more valuable; a means for transportation, but it has a fatal shortcoming of a shallow riverbed during the dry season.
Thus, the people have to fall back on the road transportation. However, road conditions are awful as the paved length covers only 2% out of the total length of the road of 13,700 km.
Kajima Corporation has been paving Route 3 with the Japanese ODA fund since 1991. The importance of the route is obvious if you have a look at the map; along the Zaire river, there are Sudan in the east, inland Chad in the north, and Zaire in the south and there is no road that goes down to south. The only way left to get contact with the outer world is to go west, via Cameroon and get to the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, the imported goods to this country first arrive at Douala port. They are transported through 875 km all the way across Cameroon to the border, and go on into Route 3, and only after 455 km of journey, join Route 1, and after further 155 km of transport, get to Bangui at last.
The journey takes about a week, and even more than two weeks if it rains. This is simply because the government cannot afford to pave the route and then simply closes Route 3 as the easiest means of maintenance of the laterite road; when it rains the traffic damages the road conditions causing ruts. This policy of closing the most important road can make this country the remotest island during the rain season. They do not have any other alternatives, I am afraid to say. As an on-looker, you might find it funny to see a main route unusable when it rains, but the case is quite serious.
The pavement construction by Kajima. has only covered about 100 km. There is a limit to the fund coming from the ODA, and it is a question how long the ODA fund can last for paving the route. However, the sheer fact is that it takes a whole year to cover 30 km and that it will take more than 10 years to the border of Cameroon. Considering the indispensable importance of Route 3 as the country's infrastructure, you might very well support the idea of making use of the ODA, taking a long view of the country's future.
The Site Office of Kajima is at present in Yaloké, 220 km away from Bangui. There are a few Japanese and nearly 200 members are the local staff.
Their work begins at 6.30 in the morning with the familiar music of a stretching exercise radioed on NHK (The Broadcasting Cooperation of Japan). Calling the roll, delivering some messages in the morning, giving some explanation on the operation procedures, and moving to each site of work, all these are remarkably and smoothly done in the local staff's initiative. It is nice to see those staff full of vigor and pride in making their own road. It makes me happy to find our Japanese ways of management are also successful in such a place as Africa.
There is another remarkable thing worth mentioning. At this site, all the management such as, the process monitoring, the construction progress report, and the pay roll calculation are conducted by the Computer network that the local staff can manage to operate. The director has set up a system on his desk that can monitor every action going on. Since the site is deep in the middle of Africa, the staff has been selected on the principle of the able minority. The director touches the keyboard even in a car. Communication systems are of various kinds including the INMALSAT, enough for any emergencies.
28 July, 1996
Noboru NAKAYAMA
