MARGAO: The South Goa Planning and Development Authority’s (SGPDA) retail fish market, which was touted as a Dubai style fish market, by the local MLA, is in a filthy condition and its vicinity is a breeding ground for swarms of mosquitoes, with its stinking water and open gutters. The flooring is slippery and many buyers have fallen and had to be taken to the South Goa District hospital for treatment.
The internal metal gutter covers have bent upwards and stones are kept on them to keep them down. The stink keeps away customers forcing them to buy fish sold by the roadsides, as a result Goan fisherwomen suffer losses.
The fisherfolk say the market has gone from bad to worse over the last few years due to lack of maintenance. The drains are open and full of black filthy water, breeding mosquitoes.
The area surrounding the market is even more filthy, and the fish and wet waste dumped there, is not collected for days, by the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) raising a stomach wrenching nauseating stink. The SGPDA market chairman never visits the place to see the condition, fisherfolk complained.
Fatima, who has been selling fish here for many years says, “There is no cleanliness in the market. All the floor tiles are broken. The tiles get slippery. Many people, including senior citizens have fallen and have been rushed to the hospital using an ambulance. The chairman of SGPDA never visits this place. This fish waste which is dumped by the roadside is not cleared. Because of the stench, people don’t come to the market. They buy fish from lamanis who sit by the roadside. They sell fish from morning till 10 pm.”
Bibiana Miranda, another fish vendor at the SGPDA’s retail market said, “This market has become filthy. Sonsoddo is better than this. Moving around or sitting here is nauseating. We are earning our daily bread in spite of all this. We are poor people, please help us. There is no proper water supply here.”
Another fish vendor complained, “They collect the sopo (sitting tax) but there is no water here. We have to go far to fetch water. Can we senior citizens do it at this age? They are not clearing the wet waste outside. The entire market is stinking. When we complain, ‘they say tell the sopo contractor’.”
“We suffer like anything since people buy fish by the roadside from non-Goan vendors. Our fish does not get sold and hence gets spoiled. We suffer monetary losses. They (municipality) take money from them and allow them to sell fish. How are we to survive?” asks another vendor who has been selling fish here for many years.
Every morning the residents of Margao and the fisher folks have to bear the unbearable stench of the accumulated gutter water, the fish waste and uncollected garbage. This is a telling reflection of the way we have got used to living in filth, as the authorities concerned, the sopo contractor and the SGPA lethargically sleep over the stinking issue.