Reporters and Cabinet visit Jennings and Perseverance

Reporters joined members of the Cabinet on Wednesday, May 4, for a tour of the inner sections of the North Windward area of the island, damaged by heavy rains on April 12.{{more}}

The team visited three main sites: Congo Valley and the Jennings and Perseverance water systems.

The visit came one day after Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves responded to critics who claimed that the estimated cost of recovery was far less than what was being quoted.

“The mission today was to get the media and members of Cabinet au fait with what has been taking place,” said Julian Francis, Minister of Transport and Works.

Work to clear the feeder roads has been ongoing since the passage of the trough which affected the island last month.

“The farmers were attacked here,” Francis said.

He explained that work was also being done in rivers along these feeder roads, to clear the areas under bridges.

The objective of this exercise, according to the minister, is to prevent debris from clogging the path of the rivers because it is of great importance that the rivers, be cleared.

Heavy machinery has been deployed to do this work; however, it was noted that there were some areas to which machines did not have access and it would therefore require manual labour to cut the logs and remove them from the river.

He also noted that in some instances, access to areas such as the Jennings water system took as long as seven days.

Francis also told members of the media that he believed the estimated cost in the forested areas was just as much as the cost to repair damaged bridges and other infrastructure in the low-lying residential areas.

He also said he expected the cost of recovery to be far higher than that quoted by the Prime Minister.

“It is a lengthy and costly process,” Francis said.

Work is continuing, but according to the minister, the hurricane season is approaching and work needs to speeded up.

“We can’t leave logs to risk; it’s going to be a long, drawn out process,” Francis explained.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said that he has been making progress in securing financing in the wake of the recovery efforts.

Already, he has had pledges from Taiwan, the European Union, the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Now that he had the money, Gonsalves said that there were other areas that will take time, for example the designs for bridges.

“That’s why the short-term things are being done,” he said.

These included cleaning and getting persons back to normal and out of emergency shelters.