State of Environmental Health at Kagoma market

Our team of three dropped by at Kagoma market on a bright Wednesday afternoon for purposes of pre-testing one of the monitoring tools that was designed by UNHCR WASH department.

Kagoma market is most active on Sundays and is the largest market in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement with a capacity of over 100 traders/stalls and with a climax of over 300 clients on the market day. There is a tendered agent supposed to clean the market on Saturdays just before the market day and on Wednesdays. The market as well has a 2 stance VIP latrine that is meant to be used by the traders on the market days. We were also informed that the available water sources are quite distant from the market with an estimate of 1 kilometer away- a situation that makes it difficult for the market traders to access water.

It so turned out that the entire market premise was profusely littered with both biodegradable and non biodegradable materials. There were faeces around the latrine- a situation that could have been due to the locking of the latrine by the management on non market days and as well due to the poor sanitation and hygiene practices of the surrounding community. The latrine had a hand washing facility (tippy tap) that did not seem functional since some parts were missing.   Information from our informant was that on a typical market day, about 4 goats, 4 cows and 5 pigs are slaughtered, however on inspecting the premise; there was no sign of an abattoir. The slaughtering is done in the open space and indeed there were signs of indiscriminate disposal of the wastes from the slaughtered animals. The market space is bushy and this most likely breed vectors and poses potential occupational hazards to the traders.

Such situations intrigued us to caution the food safety status and envisage the potential of sanitation related outbreaks. This was a vivid illustration of the poor performance of the market management authority. We then tried to dig into the drivers for community collective efforts as far as improving public health and the role of governance (social accountability) in the process of achieving improved health. It is until the community recognizes the importance of improved sanitation and understands that it is their collective responsibility, and then there will be increased prioritization and demand for improved services. Why should an agent who collects some fees from the traders fail to perform his duties of managing the market as expected?

There is thus dire need to stem up interventions that will protect and promote the health of this community.