NOT so long ago citizens were loud in their praise for the move by the Cevon’s Waste Management entity to have mobile toilets in the vicinity of the Stabroek Market, Georgetown.While this course of action was welcomed especially by shoppers and vendors when initiated a few months ago, it seems as if almost all the vendors operating inside the Stabroek Market are not of the discomfort that came about also.
For weeks now vendors have been complaining that folk from the waste- management company would arrive around 08:00 hrs to remove faeces and urine from the toilets and this results in an intolerable stench.
Vendors said their complaints to staffers of the company have fallen on deaf ears.
They said that workers from the waste- management company would arrive just about the same time they were opening their stalls and small shops in and around the market, and will conduct the exercise of pumping out the faeces and urine from the toilets.
While many complained of the stench, others feel that the situation is also unhealthy.
Bidawattie Singh, a salesgirl working at one of the shoe stalls in the market said that about two weeks ago she felt sick and had to go home.
Brenda Campbell, a vegetable vendor said that it was only last week that she too became so sick from the stench that she had to close shop quite early and leave.
Robert Williams and Steve Craig, both traders in gold and silver inside the market, ridiculed the action of the company, saying that they should empty the contents of the toilets late in the nights, when vendors have vacated their spaces in and around the market.
Engaging even the mini-bus drivers who operate within close proximity to the toilets, we were met with reports that they too had endured great discomfort when employees from the company empty the toilets.
When Cevon’s Waste Management was contacted yesterday for a response, dispatcher Calvin Durant said that they will now work towards removing their waste from the toilets in the Stabroek Market area at a more convenient time.

(Alex Wayne)