Fisherfolk want sand problem fixed

While fish vendors at the Oistins Fisheries Complex are glad to be back at work following the closure of the facility owing to the ashfall from the La Soufriere volcano last week, they are concerned about other matters which will hamper their efforts to do their jobs effectively.

One vendor, Wilma Hutchinson, said there was a pile of sand adjacent to the scaling room at the complex which has been left unattended for months, and this was creating considerable discomfort.

“Right now we cannot open the window in the scaling room because there is a pile up of sand in the tunnel adjacent to it. It has been like that for months and now has moss and fungus growing on it. Every day we have people coming here from the Drainage Division who are supposed to clean it, but they just come, look at it, and go about their business

“We have tried cleaning it, but we don’t have the manpower and the know-how to do it, so I would have thought that they would see us working and come and help us move the sand. It has become very uncomfortable to work in that room because if we open the windows the sand will blow in.”

She also called on the relevant authorities to “wash down” the roadway where the market is located regularly since “the dry dust is going to keep blowing in here when the traffic passes”, a sentiment shared by one of her colleagues, Shadia Doughty, who said customers were creating some of the dust problems when they came into the market. Another vendor. who gave her name as Lexine, also expressed concern about the drainage at the market.

They all said that so far business had been slow, but they expected matters to improve as the week progressed.
(DH)