Susan's Bay
By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
Slum dwellers at Susan’s Bay, one of the biggest slums in Freetown, have expressed fear about the possibility of becoming Sierra Leone’s next Ebola hotspot which may be caused by the commencement of trading activities at the Port Loko Wharf within the slum.
The possibility is also great considering the fact that the slum lies very close to Moa Wharf, a recent hotspot and Magazine Wharf, where some homes have already been quarantined. It is also a possibility because Susan’s Bay has one of the worst, if not the worst, sanitary conditions in the country with a population of over 15, 000 and only two latrines to serve them all.
Isha Bangura, a youth leader at the slum, told Politico that though they were yet to get any confirmed Ebola case, they were not happy about that fact that business had started in the community. She described the beginning of business at the Port Loko Wharf as “very risky” because most of the traders were coming from different parts of the country, including even where positive Ebola cases were still being recorded.
“We are afraid of people that are coming from villages like Porto Loko and Koya, among others, to sell their goods here because we don’t know their health conditions,” Bangura said.
She revealed that they were planning to develop and implement some policies that would enable them to effectively check the temperatures and statuses of traders before they could be allowed to trade at the wharf.
Zainab Kargbo, a trader from Porto Loko who trades in Mango, said as much as she understood the risks involved in trading at the wharf, she had no option aside bringing her business down to the slum. With monies from her sales, she said she would be able to take care of herself and family members.
“I’m not happy and I’m afraid of the crowd in the market,” she told Politico, but added: “that is why I am putting on long-sleeved clothes.” She however confessed that that was still not enough preventive as customers still touched her hand when they wanted to buy.
Another trader in mangoes, Rugiatu Sankoh, complained that the outbreak had greatly affected her business as they had been restricted in their activities for almost a year, calling on government to lift the state of emergency so that they would be able to carry out their businesses as usual.
But she disagreed with the notion that traders on the wharf were from the provinces alone, pointing out that a good number of them were also from the capital city, Freetown.
Police personnel attached to Susan’s Bay slum, Inspector Francis Gborie, said he had initially stopped boats and traders from coming into the wharf but he had later been ordered by some local community authorities and the Freetown City Council (FCC) to allow the traders do their trade.
“I informed my bosses and they told me they had received a letter from State House and that I should allow boats to start coming in and traders should resume their businesses as usual,” Inspector Gborie said.
He said he was worried about the congestion in the market, observing that an Ebola infected person could easily transmit the disease to others through body contact.
He said he had been hanging heads with both the community chief and other local authorities to control the huge crowd in the market as a way of preventing the transmission of the disease.
But the FCC’s Public Relations Officer, Cyril Mattia, denied claims that the council had at any point in time instructed traders to commence trading in the slum.
Mattia said the council was aware of the dangers involved in allowing traders to cluster at market places, especially at a time when the country was striving towards attaining zero Ebola infections.
He said the commencement of trading in Susan’s Bay was not to the council’s knowledge but he appealed with law enforcers and local authorities in the community to stop the traders immediately.
Mattia however assured that the FCC would continue to check and to stop illegal trading carried out by local community residents across the country.
© Politico 21/05/15
