“We must rebuild stronger and better,”
Minister of Housing Over 500 houses which sustained level 1 and 2 damage are currently undergoing repairs, among this number 171 have been completely repaired. Minister of Housing Hon. Orando Brewster made the announcement in Parliament on Thursday.
The Minister said in addition to this, work is ongoing on another 185 houses and 215 homeowners have received materials to conduct their own repairs. For those persons who are carrying out their own repairs, assessors from the Ministry of Housing would make periodic checks to ensure the materials are being utilized for the said purpose and work is being done.
Work is also expected to begin on 67 houses on Monday August 26, through the Housing and Land Development Corporation, these houses sustained level 3 and 4 damage.
“This task is not one that requires a quick fix, and what we realise from the Ministry of Housing is that many of the homes, you may look at them… and say they really need two sheets of galvanise or some lath, but…when you go in and do a close assessment, you would realise that many of these homes, they were constructed without the proper ring beams and therefore, sometimes the scope of work is broadened…we must rebuild stronger and better”, Minister Brewster stressed.
Government estimates that approximately 4 thousand houses were affected by the passage of Hurricane Beryl. Minister Brewster said though the Ministry has a “pool of contractors”, more contractors are still needed to carry out the scope of work required at this time.
“We have over 4 thousand homes which were affected by Hurricane Beryl…we have to take an approach that we have to offer contractors multiple contracts in order to get a lot of these works (done)”, Work on Level 1 and 2 damaged houses in the Southern Grenadines began this week with 22 houses being repaired on Union Island.
