THE Honiara City Council has indefinitely closed down the central market for repair.
This is a welcomed decision.
The market has been in operation for the last 15 or so years since the Japanese government built and handed over the facility to the council.
It has never undergone any major refurbishment.
The decision to close it down and do the repair work is therefore timely.
It is of significant importance to the public that the deteriorating physical conditions of the facility are restored to an acceptable level.
The market’s public toilets need a complete overhaul. The fish area needs a huge clean-up.
Furthermore, the market building needs a fresh coat of paint.
This is work that will take some time to complete.
So the Honiara public, and in particular vendors who used the market daily to sell their products, will have to be patient.
Already, vendors have been out using satellite markets around the city to sell their produces.
Some are at the established Fishing Village market, others at Kukum market, while many more are using the road-side markets at the various suburbs around the city.
However, this large movement of vendors especially to the Fishing Village market is already causing unnecessary and sometimes annoying traffic jam, along the Kukum Highway.
The traffic situation, with queues running from the west side of the market all the way to the Bahai’i area further west, needs the close attention of the council and the police.
City council officers need to be stationed at the market to control the number of vendors using the facility.
Fishing village is not strictly a market facility. It was rather a road-side vending stall that has over the years, been turned into a public market area.
The site was too small and so close by the Kukum Highway. It was not supposed to be a public market area at all.
This is why it’s important the city council makes its presence felt at the Fishing Village market.
And to cut down the long traffic queue, police should be out in front of the market and on the road to ensure a free flow of traffic.
The current situation now is simply unacceptable. It causes disruption to business activities and to individuals wanting to get to their offices or schools in time.
The city council, as administrator of the Honiara, must step up to control the situation at the Fishing village market, to ensure lives and businesses are not severely affected.
Furthermore, the situation calls for the cooperation of all Honiara residents.
If the Fishing village market is already overcrowded, vendors should look for other satellite markets to sell their produces.
The running and management of the city is every resident’s business.
It’s important therefore at this time for everyone to work together for the good of the city, while the council works on refurbishing our central market.
