ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC) – Dominica would need approximately EC$45 million dollars to rebuild its infrastructure following the passage of a low level trough system earlier this week that caused widespread damage and death in the Caribbean, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has said.
Skerrit, speaking to reporters after a special Cabinet meeting yesterday, said that his administration had also agreed on a number of measures to ease the plight of citizens affected by the weather system that washed away bridges, damaged homes, businesses and roads.
“We are talking about a total sum based on the advice on the Ministry of Public Works to be in the area of EC$45 million (and) for rehabilitation of infrastructure and mitigation and to clean up we talking about a project cost of EC$830 000”.
Skerrit said Cabinet had agreed that people whose homes had been damaged by the storm would receive 100 per cent assistance from the government.
In addition, the government has also decided to pay the rent for a limited period for some families who would have to be relocated as well as provide school books and other education material to students who suffered losses during the passage of the system.
Skerrit, who had cut short a visit to the United States as a result of the storm, toured several areas for a first-hand view of the damage and told reporters that the government would seek to rebuild the infrastructure as soon as possible.
The weather system also affected neighbouring islands of St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines where the death toll had reached 14.
St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that his administration would need “hundreds of millions of dollars” to effect the rehabilitation exercise.
