The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY three years after Hurricane Dorian decimated Abaco and its surrounding cays, portions of the island continue to be challenged by the proliferation of illegal dwellings and unreliable utilities.

There is also a housing crisis that has separated families that would ordinarily live together.

This has gone on because no commercial construction entity capitalised on the opportunity to fill a noticeable void left to linger due to the monster storm in 2019, this newspaper was told.

According to Abaco Chamber of Commerce president Daphne Degregory-Miaoulis yesterday, businesses on the island are concerned about illegal structures that are popping up in bushy areas.

She surmised that clusters of makeshift homes have grown and will continue to do so due to manpower issues with the relevant authorities.

Public Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears could not be contacted yesterday to comment on the issue.

“One other area is what they referred to as the Peas and the Mudd. They put a big fence around it and that’s where it ended,” Ms Degregory-Miaoulis said. “So now it’s just being overgrown and it’s just a fenced in property.

“And by the way all the people that lived in the Peas and the Mudd where did they go? Where are they now? They are living all throughout the bush. So, instead of having one big mess in the middle of town, we’ve got clusters of buildings being constructed in the wild.

“It’s happening throughout the north and the south. I mean throughout the island. I mean those people did not all disappear. They did not all leave the island.

“Of course, it’s a concern for business owners,” she continued when asked how Abaco businesses were handling the issue.

In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian tore through the island, leaving devastation in its wake before pummelling Grand Bahama. Several months later in March 2020 the first cases of COVID- 19 were reported in the country, paving the way for thousands more cases as the world braced for a pandemic.

It meant that economic depression was inevitable.

Ms Degregory-Miaoulis said Abaco suffered an “unbearable” blow.

“Our city was completely demolished. We had to start with a clean slate. We’ve had, of course, the added disadvantage of COVID. The supply chain of products being limited and all of the other issues that came along with the COVID crisis that everybody else had to contend with.

“The fact that we were at such a disadvantage coming out of the gate with this whole COVID crisis mess made it a little more unbearable for us in Abaco and really and truly it’s a big, big thanks to our second homeowners — foreign aid financial help that has helped our cays — Hope Town, Man-o-War, Guana Cay, basically those. They have been able to get back to a pretty healthy business environment and so I have to give a big thanks to the second homeowners for the foundations they set up with foreign support.

“From the government standpoint they, of course, had to tackle the huge infrastructural rebuild. So, it’s a big thanks that they didn’t have to basically fund the rebuilding of our cays.

“Now Marsh Harbour and Central Abaco, Treasure Cay. Treasure Cay they are still having struggles with basic utilities being consistent and reliable and the fact that they can’t get their finger out of their butt, so to speak, on the decision to sell or not to sell the Treasure Cay Hotel.

“Treasure Cay basically put Abaco on the map back in the day and now it’s a sleeping giant that is stagnating growth because a lot of the second homeowners they want to know what’s happening there and their decision to build or rebuild can depend on what the hotel is going to do and also on the reliability of services – water, power, internet, all of that.

“Abaco proper, the businesses that had insurance or that had deep enough pockets to fund their rebuild have come back and rebounded and thank God for them, the big giants.”

She continued: “But the SMEs, the small business people, the everyday middle class business owners who maybe didn’t have insurance, they are having a real struggle. This is because the population has not been able to get back to what it was because of the lack of housing.

“Housing is a major, major issue and it’s disappointing that some of our wealthy construction brothers in New Providence for instance didn’t grasp this as an opportunity early in the day to build apartments. Places for people to transition to and for young business people to be housed.

“Families have been split up and they can’t really come back to the island without having proper housing for the family. So that’s really, really unfortunate.”

She further noted the desire to see the concessions granted under the special economic recovery zone (SERZ) order extended for three more years, saying the true benefit of the initiative had not been seen or felt due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apart from this, Ms Degregory-Miaoulis is of the view that the general public has not fully understood Abaco’s challenges.

All things considered, she said now would be a good time for the establishment of a master plan for the island.