Article by Anesta Henry Published on
November 10, 2021

Houses ordered from China should arrive here in a week, Minister of Housing Dr William Duguid told journalists on Tuesday, declaring that Government’s programme to repair and rebuild houses affected by this year’s cyclones is in full swing.

Dr Duguid said work has already started on the foundations for the 150 prefabricated houses from China for displaced families that are due to arrive by next Tuesday.

The minister said: “We started to make the foundations for those and we will try to get those up as quickly as possible to again house people in those as transition houses before we then move them over to their other house, or for those that have land, to be able to access their land and put foundations on their land.”

He said while the housing ministry has mobilized repairs to 266 houses, 108 have been completed and that 16 out of the 134 home rebuilds have been finished.

Acknowledging that the process has not been moving as swiftly as hoped, Dr Duguid said his ministry continues to mobilize additional contractors to get more rebuilds and repairs done to ensure that displaced people get back in their homes as soon as possible.

Dr Duguid said: “There are a total of 540 in total rebuilds and 680 I think it is, are repairs. But all the time we continue to get more reports trickling in so those numbers tend to fluctuate a bit. Some of those reports were for rentals and we are really not doing rental accommodations and others were for businesses and we are really not doing businesses, we are really doing residential houses. But the Urban Development Commission just got reports of another 200 so we are going to be doing assessments to assess those and we will go forward with those as well.”

In an update on the National Housing Corporation (NHC) programme to rebuild homes for victims of the freak storm and Hurricane Elsa, at Orange Hill, St James, Dr Duguid told journalists the greatest success of the project thus far is that Government has produced and supplied 155 people with materials to carry out their own repairs.

He said: “I am encouraging as many people as possible that if you can get your own carpenter, or your own mason and just provide us with a materials list and send that to us, through the DEM [Department of Emergency Management] or the National Housing Corporation, we will send out somebody to assess it and get those materials to you. Help us to help you.”

The minister and a team from the NHC visited houses at Endeavour No 2  and Orange Hill Housing Area in St James where two houses are soon to be completed.

Caniston Bishop, 81, whose house was destroyed by the freak storm, extended gratitude to Government for rebuilding his home through the Rural Development Commission (RDC).

He explained that his house was significantly affected by Storm Tomas on October 30, 2010. He also thanked Prime Minister Mottley who visited him following the freak storm to review the extent of the damages.

Bishop said: “This house ain’t done and I already got four pastors to come and bless it”. (AH)