The government plans to rebuild over the next two years 1,500 houses damaged by Hurricane Beryl while trying to maintain the “very delicate balance between rebuilding quickly and rebuilding most effectively”.
Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves said 4,000 houses have to be addressed.
“Some of them were … destroyed. Those are ones we call level 3 and level 4, and some lost a few sheets of galvanise. Those are called level 1 and level 2,” he said on Issue at Hand on WE FM.
“… as we enter this reconstruction phase, there’s a very delicate balance between rebuilding quickly and rebuilding most effectively, because a lot of the houses that were damaged, on further inspection, could have been more resiliently-built in the first place.”
The minister said the government does not want to tack on galvanise sheets on poorly constructed houses.
“You want to make sure that when the next storm comes, it is less likely that they lose those few sheets of galvanise.”
Hurricane Beryl damaged over 90% of buildings in the Southern Grenadines on July 1, according to government figures. However, it left significant damage in other parts of the country, including in Bequia and parts of St. Vincent.
Gonsalves said that in St. Vincent, informal settlements were hardest hit, adding that the houses that were destroyed in St. Vincent tended to be ones that were not structurally sound.
“And the important thing for those houses and for those people is not just that we give them … a sling of cement and 30 sheets of galvanise and a few pieces of lumber,” he said.
“Is that we get those houses to be rebuilt in a way that will make them more resilient going forward so that when the next storm comes, we’re not going back to those same families to try to give them a few more pieces of galvanise, a few more a few more sacks cement,” the finance minister said.
“So, there’s a balance here because, obviously, it’s always easiest to build back exactly what was there before. But we’re trying to build back with some eye to the future as well as to the immediate needs so that we can help these houses build back in a way that they’ll be more resilient going forward.”
He said this is going to be “a tension” that has to be navigated during the construction phase.
Gonsalves noted that the law does not require the government to rebuild houses damaged by natural hazards.
He said it is a fairly recent phenomenon in St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ history that a government would rebuild such homes.
“We’re proud that the people see the government as having a role in their resilience building and their rehabilitation,” he said.
“But think of Soufriere in ‘79 or think of disasters prior to the last 15 years, there was not an expectation that the state would build back your house, give you income support, give you, essentially, unemployment support during that period, that they would give the farmers seeds and replant their fields and plough their fields for them. These are all things that a socially responsible government does.”
Gonsalves said the hurricane had left EC$800 million in damage.
“… there’s one type of political philosophy that will say there’s $800 million in damage, but that $800 million will be borne by Tom, Dick and Harry in their own individual capacity,” the finance minister said.
“And then there’s a view of a government that sees a positive role for the state, that says we represent the people the people have been affected to the tune of $800 million and we have to see to the extent possible that we can help and, in many cases, replace what has been lost to the storm.”
This gentleman and his colleagues would be well served to remember that it is not their own personal financial resources that are being spent here or their own personal generosity at play. When any “government” dollars are being spent, we must all remember that these “government” dollars either came from the pockets of taxpayers, and are in fact the hard-won earnings of taxpayers, or they came from foreign sources at costs that really don’t bear thinking about.
Mr ugeeee, Glen people say when yo coming bring yo laptop this time, the first time you had nothing so yo walk with book the second time and say yo forget what they wanted that’s why yo bring d book., so make sure this third time yo carry yo laptop. LOL. and don’t tell dem yo lost the book.
The incompetence of government is staggering. Every time there is an issue the fault is always someone else’s not government. For the amount of handout the government receives the should be doing more instead they are filling their individual bank account while people are suffering. That is the only explanation to the current affairs. Everything has remained as there were twenty years ago.
Camillo Gonsalves gets a very low mark in bull shitting. For he generally assumes that Vincys went to school only on the days not ending in Y. When Rain Forest was proposed fishermen told him that there was as a distinct danger that our waters would be overfished in no time. THE EXPERT THAT HE IS, AFTERALL HE IS A GONSALVES< AND KNOWS EV ERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING, told us that this will not happen. Ask him what is happening now. In early 2022 he reassured us that SVG will have its own hyperbaric chamber by the end of that year. It is now almost 3 years later and no sign of one. CAMILLO GONSALVES HAS GO. He is only using the people of ESG hoping that he can use them as a stepping stone to become PM. ESG voters we must kick his sorry ass out of parliament at the next election. Time to give the very affable, hard working and former banker Ms. Lavern Velox her long overdue chance to represent us.