Traders at the Wakulima market in Nakuru town want the county government to ensure that they have a constant supply of water as one way of ensuring the market is kept clean and hygienic.
The traders, mostly dealing with perishable goods said that scarcity of water at the market was compromising the cleanliness of the area, adding that they risk losing customers due to dirty products.
They said that they cannot clean their products properly due to lack of water, something they said attracts hundreds of flies at the market.
“When there is no water, you cannot expect the market to be clean because we cannot be able to wash our products and when we put dirty products on display, it attracts flies and this makes the whole place smelly,” said Nderitu Njenga, a vegetable vendor.
Cecilia Mwangi, a food vendor at the market said that lack of water was killing their business, because they cannot cook food without water and even the public toilets at the market have fallen victims of water shortage.
“The toilets are looking bad due to the lack of water to clean them and those of us who sell food are forced to buy water from vendors which is costly and we want the county government to do something about this issue of water because we pay taxes and we deserve to be given service for our taxes,” she said.
Nakuru town is known for its acute water shortages and the county government has in the recent past been trying to deal with the problem by sourcing for water from neighboring counties like Baringo and Nyandarua.