Many Stabroek Market stallholders believe the last week’s spring tide assault is a sign of things to come.
What happened on Thursday, September 9 went way beyond an accustomed swelling of the spring tide. It was a poignant signal to the more than 300 stallholders in the Stabroek Market that the forces of nature can be a temperamental companion. If the financial loss and the attendant dislocation to trading were not half as bad as they could have been, the real significance of the event lies in the fact that the Demerara River, long taken for granted by the traders, has issued a warning that it can no longer be taken for granted. In the same way that the devastating floods of 2005 and 2006 instructed the coastal farming communities, last week’s flooding warned the stallholders that they may well be trading under constant threat.
By the time I visited the market last Tuesday, there was little evidence of the damage done by the deluge. Among the stallholders, who had been bemoaning their losses just a few days earlier, the spring tide had ceased to be a talking point. They appeared to have put the event entirely behind them. It was business as usual.
Clerk of Markets Schulder Griffith was insistent that the municipal clean-up team be given its due for their work. The tide had begun to ebb by 6:30 and the first phase of the clean-up went on until 11:30 that evening. The next day, they returned to finish the job. Griffith, a diminutive figure who appears to have immersed himself thoroughly in the business of managing the market, appeared relieved that the cleanup operation did not result in longer down time. That, he told me, would have added to the frustrations of the traders, who he said were anxious to recoup their losses.
Those losses, Griffith told me, were, in some cases, considerable but far from catastrophic. Everyone had lost something but in some cases it was no more than the trading time it took for the clean-up. If there is talk of seeking compensation, it is, for the time being at least, muted. Market traders, Griffith assured, are a hardy breed. Some of them are second generation entrepreneurs, running businesses that had been in existence for decades. And while those traders with whom I spoke said that what happened last week was unprecedented in their lifetimes, Griffith said once the drama and distress of the moment had passed, they quickly put their losses behind them and moved on. It was apparent in the normalcy that prevailed on Tuesday.
The river, however, has made its point. Among the stallholders, there appears to be an acute awareness that the forces of nature will have to be taken account of, even as they busy themselves with their businesses. Changes will have to be made to take account of what they clearly believe is the likelihood that it could happen again. The changes are already evident. I visited some stalls closest to the river and the lessons that had been learned from the tide were already being transformed into action. Structural adjustments were already being made to some stalls to protect stock from another assault from the river. It is, one stallholder told me, a question of when rather than if.
Griffith said that for much of the week his office has had to deal with requests from stallholders to make adjustments to their stalls. In future, there will be a greater mindfulness of storing stock above ground level. Stallholders have been advised to store their stock on pallets or else on the additional shelves, which, in some cases, are already under construction. In a few cases, entire stalls are being reconfigured. The days ahead will be taken up with keeping a careful watch on the adjustments which the stallholders must make. Griffith is mindful that in the process of making changes, structures do not block passageways or compromise drains. One stallholder wants to build a concrete fort around his business premises. That remains under consideration.
Harold Dhanraj, the Chairman of the Stabroek Market Stallholders Association, is clearly one of Griffith’s key allies in the management of the Stabroek Market. Dhanraj has been operating a pharmacy in the market for 47 years and serves as an invaluable liaison between Griffith’s office and the stallholders. Dhanraj said the clean-up after the deluge was made easier because of the customary cooperation between the market’s administration and the Stallholders Association. He also paid compliments to the municipality’s clean-up team.
Managing markets, Griffith says, can be exacting, particularly in cases where there is never enough money to fix everything. That is not the market’s fault. Financially, it more than holds its own. Last year, revenue grossed in excess of $100M but the shortfall in revenue collection in other areas of the municipality means that much of the revenue cannot be ploughed back into maintaining the facility.
Little can be done to thoroughly protect the market from the tide. There is a limited distribution of doors that keep the river out at those points where it is believed to be most vulnerable. But the river is wayward. It has its own boundaries and when the tide is high, it simply invades the facility wherever it is vulnerable. Vendors selling fruit and provisions at the western extreme of the market are defenseless against the kind of onslaught meted out by the river last week. If it happens again they will simply have to salvage what they can and leave.
And it could happen again—sooner than many people think. Last week’s spring tide measured 10.9 inches. Another, likely to measure around 10.8 inches, is due on October 8. Everyone, Griffith says, will be watching and waiting.
