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Congested Kariakoo in bad shape
2007-12-11 10:12:32
By Gerald Kitabu
The population in Dar es Salaam’s major market area, Kariakoo, has overwhelmed available social facilities and is causing great concern.
A just-concluded survey by The Guardian around the expansive Kariakoo Market Corporation (KMC) complex has found the area alarmingly congested, the market`s underground section being the worst off.
The week-long survey also found stinking garbage strewn all over, the city authorities having inexplicably failed to clear it for days.
KMC general manager Kuboja Ng`ungu explained that the market was originally designed for wholesale to accommodate only 150 wholesalers but it now serves more than 4,000 businesspeople, mainly retailers.
He said the resultant mess has forced the market authorities to put up ``additional satellite stalls to accommodate small shopkeepers as part of efforts to cater for the snowballing number of vendors and raise income through market use fee collections``.
``When the market was officially launched in 1975, there were only 150 people conducting various businesses here. At that time the population of metropolitan Dar es Salaam stood at 450,000.
But the city`s population has now risen to an estimated four million and we have over 4,000 traders to cater for, leave alone the hundreds of vendors doing small business on an irregular basis,`` a distraught Ng’ungu added.
Currently, according to the manager, the number of vendors in the market area proper stands at over 2,000. Out of these, 1,848 are registered and operate from proper structures.
Overcrowding at the market is said to have first become noticeable in 1998 following a record influx of unemployed youths from upcountry regions to the city.
Records meanwhile show that 80 people enter Dar es Salaam every day from upcountry on average, most in search of employment opportunities.
With Kariakoo boasting arguably the biggest number of potential vacancies, a huge proportion of the arrivals head there. However, only a few ultimately get some gainful activity to perform.
``It is mainly this rural-urban drift that has led to overcrowding in Kariakoo, in turn causing environmental degradation, noise pollution, the mushrooming of hideouts for criminals and the flagrant violation of the KMC’s rules and regulations,`` Ng’ungu, who has headed the corporation for years, explained.
``Our corporation does not receive any subvention from the government but we are planning to put up additional outlets to cope with the increased number of businesspeople,`` he added.
He directed The Guardian to authorities at the three Dar es Salaam municipal councils - Ilala, Kinondoni and Temeke - for details.
Commenting on the situation, Engineers Registration Board registrar Steven Mlote said: ``With the city`s population having increased this vastly, poor sanitation and hygiene are very obvious problems.``
The engineer supported the KMC expansion strategy and called on the authorities concerned to set up similar market complexes elsewhere in the city to cater for residents living in the suburban areas.
``I would strongly recommend that Kariakoo remain standing as the city`s main market. However, it would be at its best if it turned solely wholesale, supplying goods to the other big markets that would be built in each municipality,`` he added.
Some of the traders at the market said that during the rainy season, decomposing garbage mixes with rainwater to form thick layers of stinking mud spreading all over the place.
``The situation is appalling and a health hazard to us as well as our customers and people touring the place for pleasure,`` explained one of the traders, Habib Rashid.
He added: ``What is even more alarming is that the population promises to keep growing rapidly, given social and other hardships in some rural areas.``
Rashid said new people flock to the city from all over the country every passing day and sometimes it is extremely hard for people to move around freely. ``Look at this congestion.
It`s terrible, particularly when it rains,`` he said, pointing to a nearby heap of garbage mainly comprising discarded vegetables and fruits.
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