The state of sanitation in the Bolgatanga Old Market is nothing to write home about as people openly defecate in the facility where food and other consumables are sold.
A situation which the Secretary of the Market Women, Linda Akupa describes as “worrying and heartbreaking” as it indirectly affects the sale of their wares.
According to Linda, the menace is not practiced by only children but runs through all ages and although there have been several reports to the Assembly to help fight the menace, nothing has been done to ensure that there is an end to the menace.
However, when the news team got to the market today, the team was met with a number of children defecating opening in an open space in the market.
Ironically, there was a KVIP just behind where the children were squatting and defecating openly. Asked why they were defecating openly, they indicated that their parents who were market women directed them to the space to defecate.
But when Ms. Linda was questioned on why the market women had allowed their children to defecate openly, she said: “they are not our children, they are people from outside the market who have come here to ease themselves. We have done our best to fight this thing but the people have refused to stop and that is worrying”.
Coupled with the menace of Open Defecation is the failure of the District Assembly to empty the refuse bin on time. Ms. Linda Akupa lamented how the bin could be overfilled with rubbish for over two weeks without it being emptied although it sits at a vantage point in the market.
Open defecation is a troubling menace in the Upper East Region. The region has been ranked top in the country; a worrying situation which has placed the region in a bad light.
Unscrupulous persons use market as brothel
Ms. Linda Akupa also revealed that some young men and women are using the market a brothel.
According to her, due to the unavailability of lights in the market, people capitalize on it to engage in sexual activities at the market, an act she believes is a bad omen for the women in the market.
“For seven years we have been here, the light here have been off and it has not been fixed. People take advantage of the darkness to engage in sexual activities. We have caught people severally and have complained about the issue to the Assembly but nothing has been done about it.”
She recalled that the market women woke up one day to the sight of a foetus which had been aborted and left on the streets in the market, a sorry sight which she mentioned that the women in the market have to grapple with.
Although today was a market day, the number of people in the market were a hand full and when asked for the reason behind, Linda Akupa mentioned that most of the women had deserted the market and moved to what was called the “New Market” to sell their wares and that has affected sales in the “Old Market”.
Linda mentioned that the creation of two markets has had an adverse effect on sales in the “Old Market” and therefore called on the Municipal Assembly to streamline things in order to help boost sales in the market.
By: Offei-Akoto Ayeh/A1RADIOONLINE.COM/GHANA
