Gadong wet market woes

Amy (R), a vendor at Gadong wet market, entertaining her customers at her vegetables stall.
Traders at the market have raised concerns over the market’s hygiene

Rosera Mohd
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

VEGETABLE vendors have expressed concerns over the poor hygiene at the Gadong wet market, saying that the market is infested with rats.

One of the vendors, Norasikin Abdullah, said she had been complaining about the market’s cleanliness to the authorities but hygiene has yet to improve.

“They tried to get rid of the rodents for the whole building once, but that was more than a year ago, the rats are back again,” she said, adding that the rat infestation has been causing inconvenience to the vendors and affects food safety.

“One of the rats ate the tofu I was selling, and I had to throw the whole bucket away because they might be poisonous but who will pay for my losses?” said Norasikin, who has been operating her vegetable business at the market’s first floor since the late 1980s.

She went on to say that the rodents are usually persistent and would eat everything, from pumpkins to squids.

When approached by The Brunei Times yesterday, an officer at the Municipal Department acknowledged the rat infestation problem at the Gadong wet market.

Suhif Hj Abd Rahman, who is in charge of the Gadong wet market, said the department is waiting to hire a new contractor to deal with the rat infestation issue.

“The previous contractor, TermiCam, was in charge of addressing the rat infestation problem, but their term of contract has ended so we are waiting for a new contractor now,” he said.

When asked, Suhif said he was not certain when TermiCam’s contract ended or when the new contractor will be appointed as such contracts are usually dealt by the department’s Maintenance Unit and Technical Services.

He went on to say that Rafi Construction Sdn Bhd has been contracted for cleaning services at the Gadong wet and night markets.

Mohd Arzu Hossin, project manager of Rafi Construction, said the company’s workers clean the Gadong wet market every hour daily.

“Every hour the workers clean the market, wash and sweep the floor, clean the rubbish and use heavy equipment (usually at night) to keep these areas hygienic,” said Mohd Arzu, adding that the company has been cleaning the market for almost three years.

“Fifty workers are deployed to work at markets in Gadong every day with half of them working during the day while the other half at night,” he added.

When asked about the rats at the wet market, he said his company is not tasked by the Municipal Department to handle the rats, but his workers would “manually catch” the rodents whenever they encountered them.

Another vendor who only wished to be known as Amy said the rat infestation meant that vendors can no longer leave their fruits and vegetables at the market.

“Because of these rats, we can’t leave our vegetables here, we have to pack everything up and set up again the next day,” said the 49-year-old.

This is a nuisance as most of the vendors at the market are quite old and working by themselves without any helpers, said Amy, who has been selling at the wet market for about 20 years.

“We have to carry our goods up the stairs back and forth and it takes more than two hours to set up the booth, so it’s quite a burden and not ideal for us at our age,” added the single mother.


Sumber - The Brunei Times