Chaos of an ‘African’ market
Published On August 21, 2014 » 1724 Views» By Administrator Times » Features
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Zambia Institute of arcitects logoBy Dixon Bwalya –

A SIGNIFICANT number of diseases currently ravaging Africa, including Zambia, and which are easily managed or do not even exist in other countries may probably be a consequence of the type of the built environment most African nations have decided to live in.
The Oxford dictionary defines a “market” as “a space or building for the sale of goods or livestock.” However, an African market is that place where you buy or sell such delicacies as dry ‘Luangwa’ or ‘Mongu’ fish, caterpillars or ifinkubala, tubers for preparing chikanda as well as village chickens, this is how the colonialists differentiated these types of markets from the so-called shopping malls and each was allowed a space in the town plan layout for each town or city close to the African designated residential areas.
With this definition markets like Chisokone in Kitwe and Mushili Market in Ndola do then qualify to be labelled as African markets for the purposes of this discussion.
Zambia is this year celebrating 50 years of self rule but most “African” markets left by the colonialists or established after political independence have continued to ignore or recognise the importance of the fact that most merchandise sold at these markets are edible foodstuffs which must be sold and handled in places or buildings reflecting that importance. One common factor of the African market is their chaotic layout plans in terms of both the overall locations of selling points or stands and the quality of the built structures where they do exist, even where the planning authorities have timidly attempted to demarcate stands, the final products have not exhibited any characteristics to bring unity and harmony to the over built products and in any case and in most cases these demarcations are ignored by most interested parties.
The result has been that African markets look like ruins or structures constructed to fulfill a very temporal function meant to be removed soon after and yet these markets have become permanent eyesores in our towns and cities offering a trading platform for business transactions worth millions of  Kwacha on a daily basis.
Circulation paths for both pedestrians and delivery vehicles as well as for firefighting purposes ought to be a major consideration in the planning and actual realisation of these markets but somehow this functional aspect of doing business in these markets has often been ignored with the disastrous consequences of fires destroying property and even loss of life at a number of such markets.
Nshima, drinks and other foodstuffs are usually prepared, sold and freely consumed at these markets in “restaurants” and bars however a number of environmental factors have been ignored resulting in creating potential health hazards to the consumers.
In every built environment it is extremely important to ensure that the issue of storm water drainage is carefully handled especially in places like markets with a large concentration of people and yet very few, if any, African markets have functional drainage systems to drain away not only storm water but also waste water resulting from the various activities such as cooking and cleaning activities.
The nature of activities taking place at such markets will result in generation of a lot garbage which require immediate and efficient disposal in order to minimize chances of creating possible health hazards but this is generally not the case as garbage is thrown haphazardly in any open space that is not colonised to be collected at the market committee’s convenience.
These conditions create an enabling environment for the breeding and providing a home for house flies, agents for the spread of various diseases, especially considering the fact that foodstuffs are sold and consumed at market places.
This situation is exacerbated by ignoring one cardinal natural phenomenon.
God made human beings such that whatever they eat or drink must pass through a digestive system at end of which the waste products will have to be disposed off somewhere, in other words it is not sufficient in a human being’s life cycle just to provide sources of food and drinks; allowance must be made for the efficient disposal of human waste.
It is a fact that food and drinks are freely sold and consumed in these African markets but there seems to be no meaningful attention made to the provision of toilet facilities to satisfy this human need and yet this is a common feature in most if not all shopping malls that have been constructed where decent toilet facilities have become a serious design consideration. Ignoring provision of toilet facilities in these markets has resulted in people resorting to the use of mineral water empty bottles and Chibuku shake-shake containers to answer the call of nature, a risk to children.
Attempts have been made as is the case at Mushili Market in Ndola where toilet facilities were constructed but this was done without much thought as the toilets were designed and constructed on an assumption that this building would be self cleaning and further assumed that all users would be responsible citizens, the result has been that the toilets are no longer functional and have been abandoned, meaning the public money spent on constructing this facility has been wasted.
To make matters worse at Mushili Market and as a result of the chaotic developments that take place at such markets where it seems as if no one is in charge despite the presence of market committees some people have decided to construct buildings on top of the sewer system, meaning even if proper and functional toilets were to be constructed this development would unnecessarily increase the cost of such a construction as the cost would include the cost of rerouting sewer lines.
Diseases like Ebola, cholera and dysentery are here to stay until it is realised that the quality of the built environment people choose to live in has a direct impact on the quality of health expected to be enjoyed by citizens.
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