Maravi

Sanitation is Soweto market's greatest challenge - Maureen

Sanitation is Soweto market's greatest challenge - Maureen
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Friday April 06, 2007 [04:00]

FIRST lady Maureen Mwanawasa has said sanitation remains the greatest challenge facing Soweto market. During a tour of the Maureen Mwanawasa Community Initiative (MMCI) Soweto ablution project, Maureen said they had visited the market in the recent past and realised the need for proper sanitation.

"We also realise that the facility we are building (three toilets and two showers respectively for men and women) is too small for the population of the market but we felt we must start something than leave the situation with nothing," she said. Maureen said they were hoping that as the construction of the new market progresses, the local government would be able to increase such facilities. "If we find sponsors, and the council gives us more land, we are ready to move and expand. We have had a lot of pressure to have it opened by members of the market. We have come to see how quickly the constructors can finish because this project has taken quite long, about two years," she said.

Maureen said they were also experiencing vandalism and hoped the market committee could sensitise the people on the need to safeguard their property. She said the facility was likely to be completed in the next three weeks but said they would have to meet the market committee on some other proposals. "There will be a small fee, because the facility has to be maintained, we will be paying for water, we will be buying basic things like tissue and the people who clean will need to be paid. But they won't pay more than what they already pay at other toilets,' she said.
"We want those in stands to have a ticket so that they don't have to pay everyday and we want to maintain high standards of hygiene."

Maureen urged the marketeers to sacrifice and make a difference to ensure that the surroundings they lived in were clean. And Soweto marketeers women representative Agnes Laima Ndhlovu said they were grateful for the toilet especially that they only had one. Ndhlovu said most of the toilets were pit latrines, which were not in good condition.

Labels: MAUREEN MWANAWASA, SOWETO MARKET

posted by MrK @ 4:49 AM