By: Modou Touray
Market vendors at Farato have told The Fatu Network that their market is dilapidated and leaks during rainfalls. According to the vendors, such condition causes them to cease sales during the rains thereby affecting their daily earnings. They said the market is at risk of disaster, while calling for urgent actions to minimize its vulnerability to disaster.
“Our roof is leaking seriously. When it about to rain, we abandon the place because we get wet by sitting there,” a vendor, Musukoto Saidy disclosed.
“It is important to renovate the roof. The roof might collapse on us someday,” Sariba Niie noted.
The vendors suggested for the full rehabilitation of the market structure as soon as possible.
“The revenue collector comes around daily and each of us pay D5 as market due. We have been paying it for a long time now. Our market needs improvement to make it more hygienic,” Samba Tunkara explained.
Another vendor, Jarra Ceesay said they want to know how the market dues they pay are being spent by authorities.
Farato settlement is growing rapidly in population as many settlers of the densely populated neighborhoods in the Greater Banjul Area are relocating there.
“People are moving from Banjul, Serekunda and other towns to buy pieces of land at Farato for housing purposes. Many women nowadays venture into vegetable and commodities selling to sustain their families,” Fatou Badjiie narrated.
Scramble for space for housing is challenging in settlements within Greater Banjul Area coupled with rural-urban drift make the demand for social amenities high.
“Another challenge here is sanitation. The dirty water cannot flow easily. It is stagnant and smelling. The entire market space is small,” Jerro konteh said.
The Farato market is a community initiative and was established to ease the burden of residents who commute daily to shop at nearby Brikama market.
The Village Development Committee (VDC) is overseeing the market and also responsible for the management of revenue collected there.
Mr Bakary Fatty, a native of the village, is in charge of collecting revenue at the market daily.
“We used to charge D2 daily before but it has been increased to D5. The market is not under the Brikama Area Council. The amount we collect is minimal and it is not enough to do all the renovation work. Vendors also throw rubbish everywhere which is not helping,” Bakary Fatty said
The VDC according to him is working tirelessly to rebuild the entire market to standard.
“The amount we pay for the service of waste collection is huge. I admit that the roof is leaking and we have challenges, but with time, we will be able to solve them.”
The key function of the VDC is to make adjustment between existing challenges and resources by taking necessary decisions. The VDC sometimes acquires resources from outside to solve problems of the village.
