More than 1500 houses to be built in the next 24 months

As the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines continues the reconstruction process in the wake of the passage of Hurricane Beryl, more than four thousand (4000) houses will be dealt with.

These houses are placed at Level 1 and 2 which are houses with minimal damage, or houses which have lost their roofs; and Level 3 and 4 which are houses severely impacted or destroyed.

Speaking on radio on Sunday, September 20, 2024, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves said with the magnitude of the construction, the challenge is finding a balance

between rebuilding quickly and rebuilding with resilience.

“As we enter this reconstruction phase, it’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…. it’s not that we give them 50 sacks of cement or a sling of cement and 30 sheets of galvanise and a few pieces of lumber. It’s that we get those houses to be rebuilt in a way that would make them more resilient going forward,” the finance minister stressed.

He also noted that the Government will buttress other aspects of the housing security programme whereby they will monitor closely those homeowners who received materials for rebuilding to ensure that they do so, and rebuild with resilience.

The minister added that more than 1500 houses will be built over the next 24 months.

“We borrowed money from the Saudi Government prior to the storm to build houses, that was 800 houses, and then we have the additional impact of Beryl and so we are going to be embarking on a massive home reconstruction programme that had already been planned but now has to be augmented to deal with Beryl,” the minister explained. (API)