By Binta Jaiteh
One of the most common desirous street foods in The Gambia that is not just for only refreshment but to quickly suppress hunger is watermelon.
Watermelon which you can easily eat along when walking in the street contain of high water content that can help, among other importance of it, keep you hydrated and keep you healthy. With little money in your pocket you can afford to buy sliced or a whole ball, all depend on you.
Among its healthy importance is that it is full of nutrients, improve your heart health by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol and also improve your digestion, despite this numerous importance watermelon vendors scattered across the streets of Kanifing Municipal Council still face with constraints which they implored the council to help them solve.
Most of these vendors visited by this reporter complained of high pricing on their business by the Kanifing Municipal Council which they want the council to reduce and pity their conditions.
Amadou Camara, watermelon vendor appealed to the Mayor and his office to please reduce the price charging on their items and them
“I transported the watermelons from my village, Bolongkono, to come and sell them, if we get here (Greater Banjul Area) we always sleep in streets with our watermelons to avoid carting them away. And the worst part is that they (KMC) will charge us D10 per ball of watermelon and 100 watermelons will be D1000 being it small or big,” he complained.
To make easier the transport fare he said any seller that is not having enough can always join with another noting that “in the past year we did not pay for packing but this year KMC asked for payment and license. We pay D4500 just to pack, everyone seeing here selling paid that price because you either pay or they seize your watermelon.”
When it comes to carrying the rotten ones “we do pay them (KMC waste trucks) D300 to D800 just to drop the rotten watermelons and that also is another challenge we are facing, as the drivers demand cash without even consider our loses,” he said,
But argued that KMC’s responsibility is to keep the environment tidy “I think government should be responsible and help us because I have being in this watermelon business for twenty years but I have never come across this kind of situation until this year.”
“However, I am appealing to the government and KMC to assist us in reducing the price on the packing (offloading) of our watermelon and also provide a place for dumping the rotten watermelons,” he begged.
Ousman Keita also said: “we face this when the watermelon gets rotten; we invest our money customers will not buy to make it move quickly. I believe in faith and know that all hopes are not lost. When we sell to keep the money, it is also a problem because we don’t have a suitable place to keep our daily earnings.”
