The rebuilding effort?on behalf of the dozens of Barbadians displaced by Tropical Storm Tomas last October has suffered a series of snags, ranging from issues with contractors, landlords, and Government bureaucracy.
Yesterday, Minister of Home Affairs Adriel Brathwaite admitted he was disappointed that the Government was not as speedy as he would have liked.
“The truth is that Government has not moved with the momentum that I would have liked, for various reasons. In lots of cases where persons were displaced from homes, we had problems in getting them back onto the land.
“We had landlords saying that tenants would not be allowed back onto the land, so we have about 20 families that we actually have to find land for,” he said.
“We have some issues with some contractors and we have had some issues in terms of the flows of the funds because the machinery of Government hasn’t moved as quickly as I would like it too.
“Out of this experience, one thing that I am clear about is that we need to ensure that for any future emergency that our response mechanism is not clouded with what obtains as a rule in the Civil Service,” he said.
However, Brathwaite wanted to assure Barbadians that work was not at a standstill; that the National Housing Corporation (NHC) was doing work across the island.
“If all goes well this week, we should have both the Urban Development Commission (UDC)?and the Rural Development Commission (RDC) kicking into full gear again. From what I have been assured by the Minister of Finance last Thursday, we should be in position to fund them.
Member of Parliament for St Joseph Dale Marshall has expressed concern that little has been done for his constituents.
“It is now almost a year. As you drive across St Joseph, you can see many houses with their roofs still off and the individuals have no idea as to when they are going to get assistance from Government. I was told they were going to put some people from St Joseph on a priority list, but so far none of those individuals have received any meaningful assistance.
“What is especially tragic is when these houses had their roofs blown off last year, it might have been a relatively simple matter to build a new roof . . . . What a year ago would have been just fixing a roof, now in many instances requires a complete rebuilding of a house,” Marshall said.
