…poor hygiene continues to rock market place
Rutendo Chirume
Vendors from Garikai ‘Chitima’ Market are living in fear of contracting hygiene related illnesses due to the state of waste management at Masvingo’s biggest marketplace.
The market place situated near Chimusana bridge where raw sewer sometimes gets disposed into, accommodates over 1000 vendors who are being exposed to health hazards like cholera and malaria since council is failing to collect garbage and maintain the old latrine toilet system which has four holes each for the two toilets of women and men, one at the fruits and vegetable market and the other at the flea market.
Speaking to TellZim News Chitima Vendors Secretary Lovemore Chaguma said they have tried for long to approach the council to take heed to the impending health and environmental threatening hazards but it has been to no avail.
“This is a busy market with many people including vendors and customers who visit this place. We are more than 1200 vendors coupled with the customers who come here daily so we surpass that number twice.
“But as you can see the toilets we have are old, few and incapacitated which is the reason why we do not go more than five days without a blockage. Secondly council does not come to this part of the area to collect garbage regularly and when they do, they just burn some plastic and pretend to have collected the garbage and as a result we have those heaps. At one point we tried by ourselves to manage the garbage by maintaining the dumping site but it’s impossible because we do not have bins which would have been an advantage to them because they would be coming here to collect garbage in the recycle bin.
“We have approached council on several times and recently we have wrote to them about this but there have been no responses from them. Our plight is is still the same and we implore the council to draw their attention to us,” said Chaguma.
Another vendor Tichaona Mangwanya also emphasised poor service delivery and said bad hygiene at the market place sometimes chases customers away.
“The first thing that draws one’s attention when they come here is the bad smell. That sink with blocked drainage filled with dirty water is where we fetch our drinking water. If you go inside you will notice some blocked toilet pits filled with dirty water the smell is horrible and the sight is horrific. Most of the vendors no longer use these toilets but go to the near bush if they need to relief themselves which is not commendable.
“The stench chases away our customers because they will be hurrying through their shopping as a way to get away from this place and at the same time, service delivery here is so bad and we exposed to diseases. It is something council should take immediate action on,” said Mangwanya.
In response to why there have been poor service delivery at Garikai , Masvingo Town Clerk Edward Mukaratirwa told this publication that vendors at Garikai are not being responsible whilst the toilets are incapacitated due to many people who go there.
“We have had several meetings with vendors at Chitima on how we can manage garbage. It is not the council’s duty alone to manage the waste but vendors too and if they are not responsible we will continue to have such problems. As it is we have agreed with the chief environment officer that we will do refuse collection every day unless we are out of refuse trucks on that day. The toilets are not old but they are just incapacitated since lot of people will be using them and considering they are over 1000 vendors so it becomes difficult to maintain the toilet system.
“However we have noticed the need for another toilet and as we speak the building is almost complete. Also we will have a meeting soon with them vendors and see how we can manage the issue of refuse collection,” Eng Mukaratirwa said.