Even at the best of times, that is to say during periods when there is no excessive rainfall and no flooding, the status of Bourda Market (and other municipal markets) as a facility in which the business of conducting trade in items of food, including perishables, is highly questionable. Bourda Market is a vermin-infested and insanitary facility and the standards of cleanliness and maintenance upon which the municipality and the vendors appear to have settled would, in all likelihood, be dismissed as altogether unacceptable in other countries right here in the region. We have raised the matter of their relationship with the municipality with some vendors and their response, unfailingly, usually is that they are dealing with an institution that is not the least bit interested in providing value for the rents that they pay. What cannot be gainsaid as well is the culture of corruption that infests the relationship between City Hall employees and vendors in the markets and elsewhere and the impacts that those relationships have on the delivery of quality service.
The management of waste disposal—including rotting poultry, fruit and vegetables—is itself a matter of public disgrace.
