Bourda Market vendors decry unsanitary conditions

In light of the Mayor and City Council’s (M&CC) many announcements that they are working towards a “clean and green Georgetown,” Bourda Market vendors are bemoaning the unsanitary conditions at the facility.
According to the vendors on Friday, the Market has become infested with roaches and rodents as a result of the overflowing garbage

receptacles, which are sometimes left for prolonged periods before they are emptied.
“The bins would park up here all week. For weeks nobody would empty it. It got garbage inside and everything rotten and smelling and it still there. The rats and cockroach does tek over,” one vendor explained to Guyana Times.
Complaints also arose of persons utilising the drains inside of the market as lavatories.
Other vendors highlighted that when they complain to the Market Office, or the City Constabulary Officers, they would either be shunned or verbally abused.
The vendors indicated that on numerous occasions they would attempt to approach Mayor of Georgetown, Patricia Chase-Green, on the issue but are usually told that she is unavailable.
“Nuff time we try fuh go see the Mayor but the people there always saying she not around,” a vendor said.
While this publication was interviewing the vendors, many customers also joined in with their complaints that the main passageways of the market are blocked by large garbage bins that are almost always filled and pungent.
“Look, I does gat to come in this market every other day fuh buy my stuff for my shop, and every day I come, this big garbage bin here. Smelling stink stink, I don’t know if is pee water or what they throw it in. Every day. It bothering everybody. Muchless them vendors that got to stay next to it,” one woman, ‘Indrawattie’, said.
The vendors expressed hope that the relevant authorities would look into the matter since the unsanitary conditions pose as a major health hazard to those who are forced to endure it every day as they ply their trade to earn a daily income. (Ramona Luthi)