Haja Mariatu Kamara, chairlady of Wellington’s Pan Bridge Market in the East of Freetown, has said on Monday June 15, 2020, that for over 30 years now the community has gone without a properly built stricture for the purpose of housing traders selling food items.
She said that the situation has caused traders to be hit by vehicles and motorbikes as they scramble to market their wares along the roadsides, which she said happens frequently.
She mentioned that sometimes passing Lorries destroy the goods which they display on the ground at the roadsides, and when it rains they run into business loss if they are not quick to prevent the water pouring down from getting into some of their wares which are intolerant to water and moisture which causes them to putrefy and lose anticipated profit.
She explained, “We don’t want to be at home without doing anything, so we pay carpenters to build us tables on the side of the road for us to sell and sustain our lives and our families by petty trading.”
Kamara said that they pay market dues to the Freetown City Council, adding “sometimes we get embarrassed if we don’t pay our dues.”
She also stated that in the past successive Governments had fruitlessly promised to designate a site and construct a proper building to house them.
The chairlady lamented unavailability of water which has led them not to use a toilet which had been built for them in the market. “One cannot use a toilet if water is not available. Sometimes we buy Grafton water but that could not be enough to be using all the times,” she said.
Kamara also acknowledged that the inter-district restriction has caused wholesale prices of the goods which they deal in to rise, adding that the wholesalers usually tell them that, the drivers were always increasing the transport fare, because now they transport only goods and pay extra-cost at the check points mounted on the roads.
Kamara said, “I usually trade in Beans and Beniseeds, the current situation has worsened everything. I used to buy a bag of Beniseed Le 250,000, but now Le 500,000 or at times 600,000 and above.”
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
22/6/2020. ISSUE NO.:7850