Bujumbura City: 800 Restaurants and Bars to Be Closed

Dirty restaurants near Sion Market

Unclean water used to wash utensils; buzzing flies, a low standard of cleanliness… these are some conditions in which restaurants near Sion market are operating. All along the alleyway leading to Sion market passing through the Agriculture Avenue in Ngagara neighborhood of Bujumbura City, the owners of these small restaurants are busy cooking and serving their customers. M.N, one of the restaurateurs operating in that locality indicated that she used water fetched in the parcel of the owner of her small house. “We do not have any problem with water and toilets; we just use those of the owners of these houses”, she says.

In her 50’s, this widow with nine children, says that if these restaurants are destroyed, they will die of starvation. “I do not have anyone to assist my kids with school equipment and fees; how on earth will I manage to take care of my family while I haven’t any field to cultivate. I can’t steal, I am too old to do that”, she complains.

This measure also concerns peddlers as well as porters. “The food sold in these restaurants is not expensive. If the latter are either destroyed or closed, we will become thieves given that we don’t want to return to our native villages”, underlines a vendor of peanuts, met in that locality. His colleagues swear that they will never go back home. “We will die in the city,” he added.

According to Freddy Mbonimpa, the Bujumbura mayor, restaurants and bars which do not fulfill the hygienic conditions such as drinking water, latrines as well as clean and well-ventilated places, will be immediately shut down. “We have started this operation and about 800 houses including restaurants and bars will be closed while others will be destroyed in different areas and near the markets of the capital.

We noticed that there is a sporadic planning”. He goes on to say that this operation also aims at containing cholera epidemic which is currently observed in Bujumbura the capital. “Other capital cities in the world are classified according to cleanliness standards, why don’t we participate in that competition by keeping our capital clean?” wondered Freddy Mbonimpa.

For him, every citizen must contribute to the cleaning of the town given that the security situation keeps improving day after day. “Cleanliness is not a government issue, it is rather a personal affair”, he says. The mayor also puts it that the Bujumbura City will proceed to the “polluter pays” principle. Citizens will be responsible for insalubrity and dirtiness in their localities. “The Bujumbura mayor will only help them to organize themselves but the follow-up and the payment of fees will be their responsibility”, he concluded.

It is important to note that Bujumbura City has these last days operated a hunt for offenders in Bujumbura city center. “All these persons must return to their native villages. They have nothing to do in the capital”, said Mbonimpa, the Bujumbura Mayor. On 30 August, several offenders and peddlers were arrested by the police at Sion market. “We want a clean, vibrant and prosperous town”, he insisted.