A major section of the Red-light Market in Paynesville, Gobachop (Go and Buy Own) has again been engulfed by foul smell and with rodents infested garbage stockpile, with some not being collected for the past five weeks.
Paynesville is situated in the eastern suburb of the Liberian capital, Monrovia and this site is typical of many other market places and communities in urban areas here.
A Weekend tour of the Gobachop Market, this Reporter saw thousands of deadly flies congregating on the rotten garbage at the detriment of the hapless petty traders that sthrong Monrovia’s biggest commercial center for their daily bread.
A beautiful round space constructed by the Ministry of Public Works to host majority of the petty traders is now overtaken by heaps of garbage.
Many of the petty traders who spoke to this Reporter at the weekend expressed grave concern about the health and sanitation hazards at the peak of the crowded market.
Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) officials when contacted said that the garbage challenge at the Gobachop Market should be shared by the Liberia Marketing Association and petty traders.
Some of the petty traders were so angry that they started raining insults, anger and disenchantment against the Liberian Government agencies for not prioritizing sanitation.
Most of the petty traders said the current garbage plays host to multitude of dangerous flies that are malaria carriers surrounded by clustered zinc houses.
Most of the petty traders at the Gobachop Market are mainly plantain, pineapple, eddoes, pepper, bitter balls, greens and other vegetables that are in high demand by greater Monrovia residents and some supermarkets.
In spite of the huge garbage at the Gobachop Market, producers from rural Liberia of all kinds of produce continue to bring fresh foodstuffs to the garbage infested Gobachop Market.
One of the challenges observed at the Gobachop Market is that most of the petty traders are carrying business under the perennial rains that come every year.
Besides, during the Dry season, petty traders are compelled to contend with the hot sun and the corresponding heat and air borne diseases that gather on the rotten garbage.
In separate interviews with rural and urban petty traders during the weekend sounded urgent appeals to the Liberian Government line agencies to move in and clean the rotten at the Market.
Rural plantain producer and trader Joe B. Stewart of Bong County said that he was frustrated and angry about the huge rotten garbage at that Market.
“Each time I bring my plantain bags for sale at the Gobachop Market, I encountered some kind of sickness due to bad smell from this rotten garbage,” Mr. Stewart asserted.
Urban Marketer Suzanna B. Clinton, 48, said the Municipal Government of Paynesville under the leadership of Madam Cyvette Gibson must design new strategies for the collection and disposal of garbage.
“I think in my view, the old system of dirt collection and disposal had not worked in the views of residents and expectations of petty traders of our business district in Paynesville,” Madam Clinton emphasized.
Another rural pineapple producer and trader Blama M. Kolliewala, 55, said the Gobachop Market is so filthy to the extent that it can be described as a sanitation nightmare or crisis.
“I want to recommend to the PCC administration for the collection and disposal of this rotten dirt for our selling places at this Red-Light Market,” Mr. Kolliewala concluded. By Edwin Fayiah, III, Contributing Writer