Traders at the Kojokrom Market in the Essikado-Ketan Constituency under the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) have expressed fear over the perennial flooding in the market, which leads to loss of wares and other valuable items.
The traders, especially those at the back part of the market from the main gate to the market and close to the main lorry station and surroundings are the worst affected.
Against this background, they have reiterated the need to ensure that measures are put in place to curtail the menace which often leads to financial challenges since they lose their wares to the flood.
According to them, the area is often flooded even with the slightest downpour which leads to damages adding that the flood breaks into their shops, destroying properties and leaving many stranded sometimes.
Most of the affected traders who spoke to Spice Fm’s News Editor, Seth Danquah in an interview when the station hosted the Essikado-Ketan turn of the “Spice Constituency Tour” attributed the flood menace to a gutter that runs behind the market which has not been constructed.
At the main wooden bridge joining the market from the lorry station, a footwear dealer who gave her name as Auntie Araba lamented that her shop which is near the gutter, has been flooding with her wares worth sums of money getting swept away.
Maame Asaba, a trader near the rail line fence wall lamented that the waters had washed away many of her valuables and called on the City Authorities to visit the area and address the challenge.
A trader who sells groundnut and cereals bewailed that her container shop was filled with floodwaters after a few hours in recent heavy rains, destroying her stuff and some personal belongings.
After touring the Market, it was uncovered that the drain had been engulfed with heaps of rubbish, blocking the free flow of the waters while stench emanated from them as floods sweep away garbage and debris.
However, Nana Ekua Praba, Vice Market Queen of the Market eulogised the efforts of the City Authority and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Joe Ghartey for their continuous support rendered to them at the Market.
She therefore pleaded with them to make it a priority to construct the gutter in question to control the water and avert the troubles it posed to the traders.
Mr Napoleon Agyemang, Assembly Member for the Kojokrom Electoral Area where the Market sits bemoaned the lackadaisical attitudes of some hawkers around the outskirt of the Market who does not want to go into the Market to sell and said the Assembly would soon discern on them.
He also promised to champion the plea of the traders for the construction of the gutters and making sure that the entire drainage system around the Market becomes proper.
Story: Seth Ameyaw Danquah
