Du-Port Road Market, situated at the intersection of roads leading to Zubah Town, Du-Port Road’s intersection and Waterside, which should have been an attraction of transaction and decency, has become a stockpile of garbage, driving customers away and making marketers sick; writes Ojuku Silver-tongue Kangar, Jr.
The market was constructed and dedicated by President George M. Weah on June 6, 2019 at the cost of US$244,000. It is 1,950 square meters, has office space, about 10 square meters, with width 1,000 square meters and tables capacity of 400-plus meters, according to the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment’s boss, Pepci Quiwi Yeke.
The Superintendent of the market, Martha Gbolorso, and subordinates, collect garbage fee Tuesdays and Thursdays but there is no disposal of garbage. Maggots from the stockpile garbage are common on the market floor. The stench of the garbage has driven customers away and has inflicted sickness on marketers and their children.
“The dirt scent is embarrassing us and we are using nose masks,” Patient Kollie, a potato green vendor, expressed frustration. “I can feel bad because the maggots from the dirt can be walking around here. We can pay fee for the dirt’s removal, but our leaders failed us.”
“We have talked to the leadership for the dirt’s removal, and we are tired. Customers are running away, and we are getting sick,” she added.
“I feel bad about the dirt; l want it to move [be removed] today. We pay L$50.00 or L$100 for the dirt, but no result,” Esther, a member of potatoe green department, said, holding her nose.
The market is mismanaged in a number of ways. It lacks security guards, janitors, maintenance team, among others. It is a hideout for street thugs who often assail pedestrians, snatching their belonging, running into the market hall and hiding under the tables.
The “zogoes”, who sleep in the market, urinate, dump garbage, toilet and have sexual intercourse there. Used condoms are seen on tables early in the market.
“When we come in the morning to put our goods on the tables, ‘pepe’ scent and ‘pupu’ all over the place,” a group of marketers said, expressing frustration at their leaders for alleged corruption.
The Paynesville City Corporation’s dumpsite for the marketers, which was behind the market building, was removed early this year due to its mismanagement by community dwellers and marketers themselves. The PCC told the market’s authorities to subscribe with its sanitation department to dispose of their garbage, but it was ignore by the leadership.
“Marketers make more dirt than anyone nationwide. We have told them over and over to subscribe with the city corporation’s sanitation department to dislodge their waste, but they are not willing,” Jeremiah Diggen, PCC relation, said. “The whole thing is a mindset. The people have resolved to have their will. They leave the prescribed area by the PCC and do what pleases them.”
The PCC, since it removed the garbage, has failed to prescribe a dumpsite for marketers and community dwellers.
But leaving the market and community vulnerable does not give market’s authority the right to turn the market ground into a hub of garbage. It is a place that contains foodstuffs. However, its deputy Superintendent, Cecelia Johnson, usually opposed journalists who go in market to conduct interview, a situation that caused the marketers to accuse her of being supportive of the market’s pollution.
“Nobody talk to no journalist,” Johnson said in an angry mood.
“Our leaders are not paying attention to the garbage. They can only collect the money,” Barbara Clark, a coal vendor, said. “Whenever you stop someone from putting dirt here, Ma Cecelia, who is Assistant Superintendent, can tell the person to put dirt.”
President Weah’s market project has benefited Du-Port Road community, Old Road, Duala, and so on. It is a fulfillment of the plea of his late mother, who was a marketer. “When you become President, don’t forget my market people,” she had told her son, George Weah.
The parlance, “When someone scratches your back you must scratch your stomach” has been forgotten by Du-Port Market’s leadership, abusing the President’s project with garbage and carelessness.
The garbage stockpile has blocked the entrance of the only toilet in the market, and has produced colony of flies that sit on the foodstuffs and pollute them. The market has called on PCC and President Weah to remove the dirt and institute his own leadership to protect his project.
“The only solution is that we call on President Weah to help us take the dirt and change Superintendent Martha Gbolorso, Cecelia Johnson, and the others. They are corrupt, collecting fees every week but no result,” a group of angry market women said, chewing their lips with anger.
