• Second hand clothes traders are seemingly used to the chocking smoky environment where waste is indiscriminately disposed and burnt at Lusaka’s City Market. Picture by SAM PHIRI

By JOWIT SALUSEKI

THE strong stench of the effluent in the drainage unbearable to human nostrils, the music sound blaring from the speakers is what greets consumers as they approach Lusaka’s Munyaule Market.
The market located within the central business district on Lumumba Road near City Market has one small lavatory with a pot-like bow without any connection to the sewer system.
This lavatory which caters for more than 1,000 traders and consumers, is only used for urinating and the remains end up into the drainage along the road.
Next to the drainage is a line of traders vending in various food stuff which includes fruits, fritters and roastered chicken and goat offals.
The first line of shops is less than 10 metres away from Lumumba Road with volume of traffic mostly heavy trucks which is a danger to the seemingly unmoved traders
The market has a high traffic of people flocking to its makeshifts restaurants either to sample the meals that are on sale or to patronise the shebeens that stock different kinds of alcoholic drinks which are relatively cheap.
Goods ranging from clothes, books, cell phone accessories, and hoes are displayed for sale while hair saloons and barber shops  are also opened to their clientele.
The infamous banned Tujilijili alcoholic beverages which have now resurfaced in  bottles are sold at this market with patrons consuming them while listening to the deafening music from the music system.
The non existence of lavatories has led some traders at the market to use empty packets of opaque beer to answer the call of nature and throw them on heaps of garbage that remain uncollected for a long time.
Traders familiar with the business centre claim that some women who work in salons have improvised another way of answering the call of nature by urinating in the buckets of dirty water which they later empty in the drainage opposite the shops.
Kelly Kaluba, a trader in the market says the lavatory is used by men only and women could not use it because of the way  it is designed.
Mr Kaluba said this has forced some women to walk from the market to use fee paying lavatories at West Gate Shopping Mall much to their inconvenience.
He said the market  is unhealthy as people  who drink opaque beer  from  the  shebeens  use empty  beer packets commonly   referred to as ‘flying lavatories’ to answer the call of nature during the night which they throw in drainages causing blockages.
“We have no toilets here and this has caused the place to be in a bad condition. The only toilet we have is a small pot without a sewer line which is only used by men. We have to queue up since it is the only one in this market. The nearest we have are at West gate where women go but it is far from here,” he said.
Mr Kaluba said the Lusaka City Council (LCC), however, visits the market to collect garbage and unblock the drainages.
He said the council goes through the market twice every month clearing garbage in the area and traders are charged K5 for the services.
Mr Kaluba, however, said though the local authority cleans and collects garbage, but they do not empty the bins on time despite collecting levies.
But a check by the author found mountains of garbage within the vicinity begging to be collected but traders continue to throw more waste material on the already piled heaps.
Elijah Makomani, a council general worker acknowledged that although the area lacks proper sanitary conditions the local council has allowed the market to be operating ‘illegally’ for over 10 years now.
Rebecca Tembo who works at one of the restaurants complained of poor sanitary conditions at the trading place ,saying  that she  pays 50ngwee for every 20 liters container of water which she fetches from the near by City market.
When asked why she has continued to operate her restaurant at an illegal market that has poor sanitation, Ms Tembo said she will lose most of her clients if she was to move out of the trading area as she has a lot of customers who frequent her premises for cheap meals.
“There are a lot of people who come to this restaurant to have their meals including those who work in offices  and if I were to close this eating place where are they going to buy affordable meals  since most of them can’t afford the meals that are served  in the most of these high class restaurants’’, she asked.
LCC public relations manager Mulunda Habeenzu says the council had no plans of putting up lavatories at the trading area because the market is illegal.
Mr Habeenzu said the space which Munyaule Market has taken is a car park for City Market.
He, however, said the council was going to look into the situation and take the corrective measures.
However, it is difficult to understand why the local authority have continued to allow illegal structures without considering the impact of such establishments on both the environment and human beings.
The Old Soweto Market is another huge illegal trading area without lavatories and water which the council has allowed to operate.
In the absence of lavatories at the Old Soweto Market, traders have improvised makeshift pit latrines which have sometimes collapsed on some people.
The question is; who is in charge of allocating space for illegal structures?