The repairs on the Corriverton Market, sections of which were ravaged by fire late last year are expected to be completed by the end of the month, according to Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Sonia Parag who visited on Wednesday to check on the repairs and listen to concerns from vendors.
In November last year, a fire which was electrical in nature erupted on the south eastern side of the market causing significant damage.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had said that investigations had revealed that the fire originated from an electric fan left plugged into the wall of one of the stalls and switched on, “leading to overheating and subsequent ignition of nearby flammable materials”.
A release from the ministry had added that the Guyana Fire Service successfully managed to quell the flames. However, two stalls were destroyed and others suffered major damage resulting in vendors losing several millions each in goods and other items.
While visiting the market, Parag stated, “They had a fire which you know of that was quite devastating to a portion of the market and to the vendors who were here and the government had pledged and committed to rebuilding that section of the market so that we can have those persons as quickly as possible resume their trade in the position that they were, not that they are not doing so but at different locations.”
According to her, the repairs are expected to be completed by the end of the month.
She said, “We are on time with the completion of that, it will possibly be at the end of this month but I don’t want you to tie me down to that but we have a completion date of this month end, so we want to give ourselves some space with the vendors being satisfied with what they are going back into.”
The minister stressed that the repair process saw consultations with the vendors to ensure it was done to their standards, “as far as we are aware they are satisfied to this point with where they are going back.”
As such, she said that she does not foresee the transition period being too long after completion.
Additionally, she noted that her visit was important as she also wanted to meet with vendors and listen to their concerns, “and see how we can from the ministry level be able to assist them with bringing satisfaction to them.”
One of the main issues raised on Wednesday was sanitization and Parag noted that the issues raised were mostly “doable” for the ministry.
“In terms of the cleanliness of the market, which the Town Council will step in and assist … along with the vendors in terms of cleaning their areas. We will support them with some bins, we will ensure that the washrooms are kept clean on a daily basis because you know people have to be here for long hours.”
Further, vendors raised issues of leakages in the roof, which Parag said was in the older part of the market “and we want to see whether we can patch up those holes and so on and make it more comfortable for people to ply their trade.”
The minister said that she will also be making a follow-up visit to ensure the issues highlighted were dealt with as promised.
