Expect to see more police at the straw market when the down town market reopens later this week following a two-day clean up effort, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt said yesterday.
During a press conference held at the downtown market, amid piles of garbage, Minister Pratt said that the crackdown to improve the filthy state of the market marks an attempt to bring “law and order” to the area, and comes as a result of illegal activities which are reportedly taking place daily.
“I won’t be specific [about the activities] because the police are dealing with investigations and addressing the matters,” Mrs. Pratt said.
While cleanups are normally conducted on an annual basis, the deputy prime minister said it was important that law and order is brought to the straw market.
“When law and order is in place, then everything else will fall in place,” she said.
Mrs. Pratt also emphasised that the filthy state of the market had to be addressed in the absence of the vendors.
“As you can see today we did major surgery, so to speak, to this market,” Mrs. Pratt said. “[The work crew] has taken out tons of garbage from the market since last night and I am told that if you had seen [the state of the market] last night, -you would [understand] the reason for the market being closed for 48 hours.”
Robin Wright, chief works controller for the Department of Environmental Health told The Bahama Journal yesterday that the amount of dirt removed from the straw market was “embarrassing.”
“We have the assistance of 10 prisoners and [during the early morning hours] we removed six loads of debris,” Mr. Wright said.
“We did a similar cleaning last year, between June and July, and we took out about 40 loads,” he said. “What we met [yesterday] morning was garbage in the aisle up to the height of eight to10 feet.”
Mr. Wright explained that although the heaps of rubbish have been removed, there are hard to reach areas, where mounds of rubbish have caked up, which the workmen are finding difficult to clean.
“We will have to get a pressure cleaner that will help to wash out all of the garbage that’s underneath the built-in cabinets,” Mr. Wright said.
“I hope the vendors will undergo some sort of training because we are simply talking about basic hygiene. This place is really an embarrassment.”
Hired by the Ministry of Works to remodel and replace floors in the market’s restrooms, carpenter Wendall Adderely described the state of the lavatories as “disgraceful.”
“We are also trying to build a roof over the bathrooms so if the tourists are shopping they won’t get wet. [We] are also trying to restore some of the stalls,” Mr. Adderely said.
“[There] is so much garbage here, I can’t believe we had a straw market. It’s real nasty. I want to know how they contained themselves with all this garbage.”
According to the deputy prime minister, the deplorably kept market misrepresents The Bahamas and is a threat to the country’s number one industry.
“I think we need to recognise that we are catering to our number one industry in this straw market, and that’s tourism. The state of the market is an indication of us as a people,” Mrs. Pratt said.
“It is important for us to address these matters-sensibly and also be cognisant of the fact that we have a number of different entities, like tourism, private sector business persons. When the vendors return on Friday the atmosphere will be more conducive for them and tourists alike.”
Luke Small, former Youth President of the Down Town Straw Market, admitted that the cleanup exercise was past due.
But Mr. Small said he had witnessed the clean up crews being careless with items left behind by a few vendors.
He said the new method of evacuating the area is costly and will temporarily cripple many of the vendors, who will have to replace the merchandise removed during this exercise.
“There are some vendors who cannot carry the stuff home, for whatever reason, so I believe there is no time when the market can be completely empty,” Mr. Small said.
“Despite us asking to be allowed to work while the market is being cleaned, [officials] wanted to go ahead with completely emptying the market.”
He said this creates a problem for a lot of vendors whose merchandise is being thrown away.
“I am not blaming the workers because they are only doing what their bosses are telling them to do,” said Mr. Small.
By: Royanne Forbes-Darville, The Bahama Journal
