Samuel Kallon 
Africa 24 news
Petty traders in Waterloo and many more in some markets in Sierra Leone are always not happy whenever there are signs of heavy rains in the time of the rainy season.
On Tuesday 13th May 2025, a lot of the petty traders in Waterloo Tombo Market went home early as they saw some dark, rainy clouds hanging over them.
Thunders and a light rain by 3:30 pm made most sellers abandoned the market to go home.
This is because the market and stalls they sell in and put their goods on are not good enough – they are weak while the place is so dirty too.
“This is how this place is; it floods whenever there are more rains,” says a woman rice seller at Tombo Market.
The market has hundreds and hundreds of petty traders and the loopholes in the market affect the sellers a lot.
When the gutters from the hillside communities nearby, York Road and Newsite, empty out the rubbish into the market, that rubbish spillover on the market.
A market has been lately built there by their council chairman, Kasho Holland-Cole, but it is too small to accommodate everyone or nearly a thousand petty traders owning business at Waterloo Tombo.
The situation for traders in Waterloo is more the same for others in many markets across Sierra Leone. Markets are not clean, strong and covered with roofs as there are only board stalls put in the open air to sell.
Rainy seasons are a bad sign for petty traders in Sierra Leone who sell at Africa’s most poor markets.
