'Wi een yah surely dead' - Santa Cruz Market vendors fear coronavirus will spread there

Vendors in the Santa Cruz Market in St Elizabeth are convinced that the area and its surroundings are so dirty that if the coronavirus hits the parish, they will not stand a chance.

When THE WEEKEND STAR revisited the market, all vendors had abandoned it, moving their stalls outside. They said that they are unable to operate in such unsanitary conditions.

“If coronavirus come a Santa, all a wi een yah surely dead,” Peggy told THE WEEKEND STAR. “Missa Tufton a talk bout sanitary conditions, an how wi fi travel with Lysol and wipes fi keep the environment clean. But fi wi market up yah so lack a sanitary convenience inna every way.”

Peggy noted that there is no urinal, so men use anywhere to relieve themselves.

“When rain fall, wi flood out; an next day a pure muck een yah. The fish people dem throw fish scale and fish gut every weh; and some fly inna the market weh big like a ratbat,” she said.

Other vendors said that they have been complaining for some time now about the unsanitary conditions in the market place.

Shem Walters, a shop owner inside the market, said that since the perimeter wall was erected around the neighbouring bus park, a large hole had been cut inside the wall which acts as a soak-away for the water that gathers inside the park.

This water is channelled inside the market compound, transforming it into a pigsty.

“Mi afi a pay up to $2,500 a week fi keep mi shop inna the market, but no vendor nah come een yah, so nobody naw come een yah come buy,” he said. “The venda dem come like 8 a.m., but by 9 the entire place empty. Everybody gawn a street because the place too dutty, an mi nah blame dem, because everybody afi a think bout dem health.”

Our news team tried to get in touch with the market manager but was told that she was not present.