The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE GOVERNMENT has spent nearly $100m to repair government buildings and infrastructure damaged or destroyed during the passage of Hurricane Joaquin, Melanie Roach, Technical Director of the National Repair and Reconstruction Unit announced on Friday.

At a press conference at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) headquarters Mrs Roach said that figure does not include residential repairs undertaken by the organisation.

She said the agency has "not quite finished tallying" those numbers but that information should be available next week. However she did say that $9m was spent on government buildings, with half of that being spend on repairs to the San Salavador airport.

Hurricane Joaquin battered the central and southern Bahamas on October 1 and 2, 2015, destroying homes and buildings and leaving severe flooding in its wake. Long Island, Crooked Island, Acklins, San Salvador, Rum Cay and Long Cay sustained the most damage from the category 4 storm.

Mrs Roach said since NEMA embarked on its residential repair and reconstruction programme, it has conducted repairs on 383 homes - 88 in Acklins, 37 in Crooked Island, 117 in Long Island, 29 in Rum Cay and 112 in San Salvador.

She said NEMA currently has 25 repair projects in progress - four in Acklins, nine in Crooked Island, 10 in Long Island, one in Rum Cay and one in San Salvador.

She also said NEMA provided material for the repairs of 499 homes where the homeowners "provided their own labour". There were 216 homes where residents provided their own labour and materials. There were 336 homes that were "ineligible for repair" throughout the islands.

In total, Mrs Roach said NEMA has  assessed 1,611 residential homes throughout the six Family Islands and has repaired most government buildings. Those that have not been comeplted will be done in the "near future".

"There are 24 homes still under construction: three in Acklins, five in Crooked Island, 12 in Long Island and four in San Salvador," Mrs Roach said.

"Two of the three homes in Acklins are nearing completion and one is much delayed. In Crooked Island, three of the five are nearly completed and two are delayed. In Long Island, the majority of them are about 60 per cent completed and they are awaiting the arrival of additional equipment that are required for completion and the Ministry of Housing is working with the Ministry of Finance to try and get those materials there as early as next week.

"In San Salvador, three of the four homes are nearing completion, one is slightly delayed," she said.

Leyton Rahman, Chief Civil Engineer of the Bahamas at the Ministry of Works and Urban Development, said the total cost of all the repairs to road and infrastructure will cost around $60m. He said all the work will be compelted by the end of the year, depending on what happens with the threat of Hurricane Matthew.

"That $60m is just approaching, so some of the desgin work has not been completed so this is a blind esitmante, but I would expect that we would stay wihtin the $60m limit."

Last October, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the initial assessment had pegged the cost of damage at well over $60m. The figure, he said, was expected to increase as the Ministry of Finance continues to receive additional assessments.

Mr Christie said the amount needed to cover the cost of this recovery and repair phase was likely to be funded through borrowing from either the Caribbean Development Bank, financing from China or by other traditional sourcing.