HEALTH DANGER!

Agbogbloshie Market now refuse dump

STORY: SELORM ATUTORNUA

A visit to the Agbogbloshie Market at the weekend has revealed that the heavily patronised market in the central business district (CBD) of Accra is fast turning into a refuse dump with dire consequences for the health of traders and consumers.

The market and its surroundings have become grounds where traders and residents dump solid waste.Apart from the health hazards, the situation our news team observed was also an eyesore.Our investigations disclosed that the most reported ailments among residents there are diarrhoea, cholera, malaria, and that consumers could get infected when they patronise the products.

In an interview with a trader, Auntie Ama, she admitted that the situation as at now is nothing to write home about, and said, “The stench could become very unbearable, especially when there is a heavy downpour.” She said the number of traders had sky-rocketed beyond what available market space could take resulting in constant congestion and unmitigated filth-generation.She stressed that it is high time city authorities took sanitation at the market seriously and did something about it before it got out of hand.

According to her, filth has engulfed every corner of the market, “the gutters are choked with rotten debris, whiles traders, pedestrians and drivers struggle through refuse for space on the way to their various destinations.” Auntie Ama also disclosed that what is clearly written on the faces of many people who patronise services at the market is frustration and discomfort.Our news team observed a nasty scene when right after a group had desilted a gutter, some traders just walked up and poured refuse into it in the full glare of everyone present.

It was also easy to see traders often selling beside pilled-up garbage, while others simply cover stinking gutters with wooden boards before placing and displaying their items on it for sale.In an interview with an Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) official, Nii Teiko, he remarked, “We used to provide refuse containers and bins for the traders, but due to deliberate refusal of the traders to use these receptacles, it has resulted in what we see, where refuse containers don’t seem to be around.”

Today can reveal that even though there are a few refuse bins around, they normally get full quickly, usually within a day due to the sheer numbers of people and amounts of garbage created by them in the market.This leaves the traders with no option than to pour the additional refuse on the ground around the full bins.