Guyana is experiencing another season of heavy and consistent rainfall.
Vendors, particularly at the Bourda Market, bemoaned the state of the area and highlighted how the rising flood water is affecting their businesses.
“The weather situation as you can see is very bad. We got many stall holders not coming, many stalls not opening [so] it affecting us a lot,” one vendor Mannaseh Primo said.
Vegetable vendor, Jennifer Roberts, explained that the overflowing and clogged drains in the market have made selling for her extremely uncomfortable.
“This water hay now when this water raise up it hambug we because it get into the stand and when it get into the stand yuh gah geh thing to put ya things high because you can’t get yuh thing low because yuh gon geh people sick, you can’t sell people them things in soak water, yuh gah put yuh things up high,” she said.
As a result, vendors pleaded with the Mayor and City Council, and their subsidiary organisations, to clear the drains and ensure that the water can freely flow and to ease the excess water left stagnant in the marketplace.
“The council or whoever should clear [where] the stoppage [so] that we could get to do our business, to get along and get ahead. The market is full, all over is full so we can’t get to do anything for the day,” said herbal vendor Samantha Smith.
Further, vendors lamented the poor sanitary situation in the marketplace, where there are no washroom facilities available, since the market had to be closed due to the flooding in and around the structure that houses hundreds of stalls.
Vegetable vendor, Monica Mitchell, highlighted that they are also not being allowed access to the nearby washroom facilities located at the city constabulary.
“Right now, we ain’t got no washroom facilities. And they close off the market due to the flood…So, if you want to urinate, you want to do anything, there is no facility to use, and you got the constabulary right there. You go there they don’t want you to use it. The sanitation workers got something at the back deh they don’t want you to use it,” she explained.
Minister of Agriculture Hon. Zulfikar Mustapha, who has direct oversight of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), conducted a brief inspection of several pumps across the capital city, to ensure the equipment under their purview were fully functional.
