To completely remove rodent infestations, traders at Tema Community One Market have called for routine fumigation activities. Scores of traders in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tema after a fumigation exercise stated that even after the fumigation some rodents continued to destroy their belongings. Some markets in Tema were at the weekend fumigated by the Tema Metropolitan Environment Health and Sanitation Department in cooperation with Zoomlion Ghana Limited. The team that performed the fumigation exercise to eradicate the rat infestation in the market, according to Madam Mary Ayittey, an Okro vendor, disposed of all the dead rodents. She said the rodents had the ability and strength to create holes by chewing the wood of the roofing, which served as a hideout. Ms. Salomey Oto, an onion and tomato trader, also said she came to the market a day after the fumigation exercise to find out some of her tomatoes had been destroyed by the rodents. 'The rodents are smart, which made killing them difficult because they had places to hide in the shops, and sometimes I wonder if they hear the plans, we have for them', she noted. She added that aside from the fumigation exercise, she mostly purchased pesticides mixed with smoked fish, such as salmon, and then positioned them at the verge point, which helped minimise rodent invasions in her shop. Alhaji Aminu Issah, the deputy chief butcher of the Tema Cooperative Butchers Society, commended the TMA Environmental Health and Sanitation Department and Zoomlion for the good work done by keeping the markets clean after the exercise. He reiterated that the rodent infestation had been minimised and believed that it would take time to get rid of all rodents in the market. He appealed that the team should put more effort into helping eradicate rodents and pests in the market for the safety of their food items.

Source: Ghana News Agency