Brikama fish market closed down to resolve unhygienic condition

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By BINTA BARRY-JAYE

The fish market in Brikama in The Gambia’s West Coast Region (WCR) has been temporarily closed after an inspection by the Food Safety and Quality Authority FSQA found the facility in serious unhygienic condition.

The shutdown followed The Monitor story published on 28^th May 2022, concerning the unhygienic state of the fish market.

According to FSQA officials, Abdoul Latif Daffeh and Mustapha Darboe who were met at the market, the office has a mandate to officially control the safety and quality of food and animal feed whether locally produced, imported or destined for export.

“We have received many reports on the unhygienic state of the fish market and personnel were sent to assess the situation and came to the conclusion that the market is no longer hygienic which prompted to the immediate closure,” said the FSQA officials.

The two officials said they did not need to inform anybody because it is within their mandate to confiscate any inconsumable food or close unhygienic facility, adding that the place would be monitored to make sure that things are restored.

Speaking to The Monitor, local vendors at the fish market complaint against the officials of the Brikama Area Council (BAC) and National Environment Agency (NEA) who relocated them to an empty land where they neither have access to water nor without toilet or storage facility to preserve their fish.

“They took us to an empty land without water, toilet or storage facility to freeze our fish. And you know our fish cannot stay for a long time without freezing it,” President of the fishmonger’s association told this medium.

While complaining about the lack of basic facilities at the alleged empty space, the president of the association also explained their encounter with angry residents who protested against the relocation.

He added that the place is not suitable for a fish market.

This reporter saw vendors cleaning the fish market with brooms, rakes and wheelbarrows amongst others.

“We will come together and continued with the cleaning exercise once in a month,” he said.

Mr. Alieu Jabang of the Ministry of Fisheries said the facility was built by the Japanese government and provided a sewage system that has blower machines that blow and burn the water.

He said the machines are not serviced, so they are using septic tanks to drain the waste, which is expensive, noting that the machines were operating for more than 10 years without maintenance.

“We use to drain the water every three days which cost more than D10, 000 and the market taxes cannot cover that. Sometimes, we even have to pay the council septic tanks to drain the water but vendors outside would dumped their waste in our dust bins but the council would not intervene in helping us,” Alieu Jabang said.

He revealed that the council is not paying its monthly contribution to them, which is 10 per cent of the collected tax.

Dependent on the production of ice, Mr. Jabang said the fish market is running on losses due to the weakness of the machines and its heavy consumption of electricity.

“The Ministry has never intervene, but we are paying our salaries from here,” he added.

The Spokesperson of the BAC, Mr. Lamin Singhateh, said the council is finding a solution to the problem, admitting that the place provided to the fishmongers is not standard but it is only temporal.