Asaba – Vendors of sachet water and cold drinks in Asaba, Delta State, are counting their losses due to sharp drop in patronage as a result of unfavourable weather, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

A check by NAN on Wednesday in various parks and markets in Asaba shows some of the traders bemoaning their fate.

According to them, sales have dropped in the last few months due to the rainy season, and is particularly bad in the last three weeks due to “unfavourable weather”.

Mr Peter Azu said he now earns about N800 daily compared to N2, 000 before the rains started.

According to him, it has been raining daily in the last three weeks, making the sale of sachet water difficult.

Another vendor, Miss Oluchi Nwanchi, also said that the weather had affected her daily earnings.

“On a normal day, after school, I sell as much at 20 bags of sachet water and each day I always save N300 from my sales.

“But since the rainy season started I now find it very difficult to keep N300, instead I have decided to be saving N100 daily,” she said.

Mrs Grace Ugo, a cold drink trader, told NAN that she used to sale as much as eight crates of assorted drinks daily but now hardly sales up to four crates due to the cold weather.

“I have not been making sales since the rainy season started and I cannot blame my customers for not buying cold drinks for now because it has to do with the weather.”

Mrs Linder Efosa, an ice blocks trader said, the situation was worth this year.

“We always record low sales during the rainy season but this year is worse than previous years.

“I even decided to reduce my price from N80 to N60 for ice block but the story has not changed,” she said.

– NAN