Estella Pia, the Chairlady of the Bottom Mango community, PWD in the east of Freetown, has told Premier News on Saturday August 29, 2020, that the community has not got an ideal place to use to sell their wares which has caused them to trade in the street exposing them to the danger of being knockdown by vehicles and bikes.
Pia revealed that the place which traders currently use is the property of the SLRA, adding that the Authority would intend to disperse them soon.
She said, “The number of traders has exceeded the size of the place we do our business. Before this time, traders were below 100, but recently the market has over 2,000 traders, and space could not accommodate us, and that had led some of us to trade in the street.”
She said that sometimes vehicles run into the goods.
She further said the market has no source of water, but traders and regulars at the market beg water from people in the neighborhood.
She also expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of toilet in the market, adding that they usually pay Le1,000 to use e toilets in residences in the neighborhood.
“Sometimes, traders and regulars urinate in the gutter and sometimes in their buckets then empty them where we to do our business,” she said.
She added that they have tried to reach the Freetown City Council on several occasion but they have paid no attention to them in spite of the fact that they usually pay their market dues and the monthly taxation to the council, but they have not paid any attention to them.
Aruna Sowa, the City Engineer of the Freetown City Council, said that, every community has its councillor who is responsible for negotiating any project with the Council.
He said, “Before the council embarks on any task, the councillor should have first written a letter to Council administration, Which we would follow after.”
He said that the Council is working to see that communities in the municipality have a market structure in order to accommodate lots of people as it could.
He said that the council has constructed many markets, toilets and they had also provided many Milla tanks to different markets in the municipality.
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
01/092020. ISSUE NO: 7899