Flooded Duazon Market Leaves Vendors Struggling for Customers

Duazon, Margibi County: ‎For market women at the Duazon Market in Margibi County, heavy rainfall is becoming more than a seasonal inconvenience.

‎Each time the rain comes, water reportedly takes over large sections of the market, leaving vendors to sell their goods while standing or walking through dirty water.

‎The situation is also affecting customer turnout, with some shoppers choosing to go to other nearby markets rather than enter the flooded trading area.

‎Market woman Alice Dillion says the situation has become embarrassing and is causing vendors to lose business.

‎“The water is embarrassing us too much. No customers are coming into our market, and our goods are spoiling in our hands,”Dillion said.

‎She is calling on Representative Roland Opee Cooper and the government to intervene and address the flooding problem.

‎Another vendor, Gloria Diggs, says the water can cover the entire market whenever heavy rain falls, making it difficult for vendors to continue their normal activities.

‎“We, the market people, just walk in the dirty water, and the customers can leave and go to the next market area, either Boystown or VOA,”Diggs said.

‎She worries about what could happen to the vendors if the situation continues without a solution.

‎For Patience Williams, the problem is linked to both flooding and drainage. She says water enters the market from underground and also flows into the area when drainage systems become full.

‎“For now, we are suffering, so we are appealing to the government to help us,”Williams said.

‎According to Williams, customers often avoid the market when it is flooded because they do not want to walk through the water.

‎She says this leaves vendors with little or no sales despite coming to the market with goods to sell.

‎“We come in the morning and put our market down, but the same way we put it down, that is the same way it will leave. We pack it in the evening,”she said.

‎The situation at Duazon Market highlights how flooding can directly affect the livelihoods of small-scale traders who depend on daily sales to support themselves and their families.

‎For these vendors, the concern is not only about standing water. It is about customers staying away, goods spoiling and another day of business being lost.

‎The market women are therefore appealing to government authorities and local representatives to address the drainage and flooding problem before the situation continues to undermine their businesses.

‎For the women of Duazon Market, the message is simple: they want to work, they want customers to come, and they want a market where rain does not mean another day of lost income.