Agbogbloshie market— The good, the bad and the ugly

By Doreen Allotey


IT is a Friday morning, a market day and as usual, I have arrived like most women residents in Accra to purchase the family’s food supplies for the week. An all familiar scene, yet difficult to get used to greets me as I meander through the market.
Discarded pure water sachets and other used polythene material as well as, empty tins, pieces of foodstuffs in various stages of decomposition vie for space with vegetables strewn on the ground. Fetid water weep out of sacks of cassava dough and flies busily feast on smoked fish and other meat products while truck pushers fight for space with human traffic. The end result- a mixture of filth, stench and cacophony of noise. This is Agbogbloshie, one of Accra’s biggest foodstuff markets.
Agbogbloshie is all that expanse of land in Central Accra stretching from Domod Aluminium Company to Sikkens Paint. History has it that, following the demolition of Makola No.1 in the early 1980s, a water-logged portion of Agbogbloshie which was settled on mainly by squatters was converted to a market to resettle the displaced Makola traders.
It is quite a big market and its proximity to the railway station makes it possible for customers to get fresh foodstuffs from up-country . Again, its location ensures that it is accessible to people in various parts of Accra.
Notwithstanding the heavy vehicular and human traffic customers prefer to shop at Agbogbloshie because of the comparatively cheaper prices of foodstuff and other items.
Despite its popularity and good patronage, the Agbogbloshie market is beset with some problems which mainly has to do with its structures, facilities and attitude of traders, visitors and customers.
It is quite tough for customers to find space to park because the available parking lot is almost always full.
Moving through the stalls is quite difficult; there are “sub-stalls” infront , beside and at the sides of regular stalls creating obstruction. The market stalls are also used for domestic accommodation, a case of what sociologists term creative homelessness.
Sitting behind their wares , some of these market women will just throw their cover cloth over their shoulders , reach for a container and urinate in it and without washing hands, they will gladly serve you. They are full of energy as they continue to enthusiastically call out to customers to buy their wares. “ Sweetheart, won’t you get some tomatoes? How about onions? Is my name not on the list?—They cry out to those customers who read from a shop list as they buy from the market. So polite sound these traders, but if you dare pull down any of their wares mistakenly, you will see the very different part of them. Fights easily break out in this market as traders fight over customers for more sales. Such attitudes have sometimes resulted in avoidable conflicts. The recent clashes at Agbogbloshie in which some people lost their lives is a typical example.
Appropriate storage facilities are not in place as frozen chicken is displayed on trays placed on tables. Frozen meat could be left in the hot sun almost the whole day until evening when they may be sent back into cold storage. As dusk approaches, prices of perishable food become cheaper and some customers specialise in waiting to buy at that time.
It is very difficult to tell whether the food item one is buying is expired or not . How can we tell whether sugar being sold from a basin has expired or not? In any case, if we do not buy it in this manner, it will be used to make dough nuts for us!
Palm oil and other oils are sold from unlabelled containers making it impossible for the customer to know the brand name of what is being bought.
Weights and measures do not seem to apply here. Where scales are used to weigh meat and other items, the suspicion is that they are doctored to weigh heavy. Similarly, the olonka or the American tin used to measure your gari or kontonte measure may have been pushed in at the bottom to reduce the volume. The women stuff baskets used to pack tomatoes for sale with grass and paper all in the bid to deceive customers about quantity. And because there are no price tags, the vendors expect you to bargain for everything. Sometimes bargaining can produce a thrill but invariably the vendor is cheated. Added to this, bargaining can be time wasting.

Negative effects of practices
The insanitary conditions could cause a general epidemic that could spread to households that shop for food from this market. It is for fear of a situation such as this that the market was closed down not too long ago for renovations but this has not changed the conditions.
The contamination of food with bacteria that multiplies quickly in the humid environment makes food poisoning a possibility and some of the vegetables lose their state of freshness and nutritive values as a result of the way they are handled. Dry powdered food such as konkonte and gari are left at the mercy of the dusty wind during the dry season is certainly not healthy.
Dr David Nortey , Head of the Korle Bu Polyclinic, who sees to patients from Agbogbloshie . The common ailments they present are water- borne diseases like cholera , diarrhoea and typhoid. Added to these are other diseases like worm infestations, tuberculosis and injuries as a result of fights.
He is not surprised about such cases which he attributes to the insanitary conditions in the area. So for those of us who relish buying from that market, we stand the risk of buying typhoid and cholera to our homes.
Dr Nortey explains that the overcrowded nature of the area which does not allow good ventilation accounts for the high prevalence of tuberculosis while the choked gutters and drains are a very conducive place for the breeding of malaria.
The cluttered stalls and lanes blocked within the market means that in the event of fire-out break there is no access for fire engines.
Challenges

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) is facing huge challenges of administering the market. It is overwhelmed with ensuring sanitation in the area.
As Mrs Rosemond Okpoti -Israel, Head of the Market Unit of the AMA puts it , the AMA has sweepers but the heavy influx of people to and fro the market make their job insignificant.
They sweep everyday but people sell in the night even when the market has officially closed so by day break the whole place is littered with discarded food stuff, sachet water and polythene bags.
The Ministry of Health has a unit at the market that sees to maintaining hygiene in the market. But the staff of this unit work from 8a.m to 5p.m.This means that the number of people who sleep in the market cannot be checked on .
Acts that offend the AMA’s (Public Markets) Bye Laws range from littering to selling or purchasing goods or stock near established markets other than approved places or erecting stalls at places other than the established markets . Offenders are liable on conviction.
The laws also require “all AMA tenants at the market to insure their properties against fire , theft, burglary or other foreseeable contingencies” and No occupier of any store in the market shall sublet or share such store, except with the written consent of the Assembly.

These bye -laws that regulate the market can be found in the Local Government Bulletin of September 1, 1995. Section 79 which is the Public markets bye- laws states that “ a district assembly shall make bye laws for the purpose of any function conferred upon it. The bye- laws specify as penalty, a fine not exceeding GH¢20 or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months or both. It further specifies a penalty not exceeding 20Gp for each day on which the offence is continued after written notice of the conviction has been served on the offender in the case of a continuing offence.
Fine laws but are they being respected?
The city guards of the AMA work from 6a.m. to 6p.m. During this period , they are able to check users of the market. According to Mrs Okpoti-Israel, they have been taking people to court for breaking sanitation laws for instance but after 6p.m. When they close, the laws are flouted.
In spite of these negative practices and the potential health implications, Agbogbloshie remains relevant in the life of most households in Accra. It is from here that the smaller markets get their supplies for retailing and prices are considered moderate . Also worrisome is the fact that the insanitary conditions in this market is similar to what pertains in almost all markets I have visited in the country.

Suggestions for improving the market
It is for these reasons that efforts must be made to improve conditions in the market. The AMA needs to intensify its educational campaign on the need for maintaining hygiene at the markets and there is also the need to introduce modernity into the operations of the market women. The market queens could be used as change agents to ensure a change in attitude .
There should be regular visits by food inspectors; displaying of items such as oranges, plantains etc. on the bare floor should be prohibited and customers s are advised to wash such items before they even peel them. There should be no compromise; unauthorised structures that have been added to the stalls should be demolished to make way for easy movement within the market. The Ghana Standards Board has a role to play by introducing to the women advantages of weights and measures.
If Agbogbloshie market should remain where we get our food supplies, then sanitary conditions there should be ensured. That will be no luxury because it is our health that is at stake.