©AfreePress-(Lomé, April 15, 2022)-Traders in the Agoè Assiyéyé market can finally breathe clean air. The gutters located around this market and which have been clogged for several months with garbage, were finally cleared on Thursday, April 14, 2022. An approach by the NGO “Initiative for Sustainable Development in Africa (IDDA)”.
In order to contribute to the improvement of the living environment of the women of this market, the NGO through its project called: “Sustainable management of the environment by the women of the commune of Agoè Assiyéyé 1 and the practice of sports by the women and young girls of the Agoè-Assiyéyé market”, supported by the Autonomous District of Greater Lomé and financed by the French Development Agency (AFD), deployed a team to clean the gutters of this market.
“The project started with a sports practice every Saturday and we had to do about ten sports sessions with the participation of more than 600 women. The stage on which we are today is the cleaning of the gutters, since it is a question of protecting the environment of the women in this market. The women’s slogan here is ”my market is my office, my office is my market”. So, for us, the office must be clean,” said the Executive Director of the NGO IDDA, Ms. ZEWU Akpénè.
The NGO has also raised the awareness of the resellers in this market on waste management, in particular that of plastic bags.
“Especially since these women sell food products, the upkeep of these places is very important because the whole population is concerned. Thousands of people come to this market to buy these foods, so public health is at stake. We took the opportunity to educate women about protecting the environment. We would like to thank the AFD which financed this project and the Autonomous District of Greater Lomé which accompanies us”, indicated Mr. Mrs. ZEWU.
And it is incivility that leads some dealers in this market to confuse gutters and dumps. All kinds of garbage, even metal objects end up in these gutters making it very difficult for the scavengers.
On the spot, the initiative of the NGO IDDA is welcomed by the dealers. For them, these open gutters are not only a danger for passers-by, but also a health problem because of the nauseating odor they have been emitting for some time.
“Today, we can finally breathe. It is our comrades who come to dump in these gutters, the garbage collected in the market, since these gutters have been open for years. Our wish is that after this tremendous work that the NGO has just done, the Town Hall of Agoè-Nyivé 1, comes quickly to cover these gutters to prevent people from dumping garbage in them again”, pleaded, Ms. Madjaglana Elise, shopkeeper.
Raphael A.
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