BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Apr. 11, 2018 – PRIME MINISTER of Dominica, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, has revealed that the total in damage to the island following the passage of Hurricane Maria is EC$3.5 Billion.
He made this revelation in an address to the nation yesterday Apr. 10.
Prime Minister Skerrit said that even though weekly updates were provided, it took some weeks for experts to fully analyze all of the damages and losses and the time had come to give a substantial update.
“Though we have provided weekly updates along the way, I felt the time had come for a more comprehensive and meaningful reflection of where we are today, what progress we have made, what challenges we face, and where we are heading.
“It took six weeks for the experts and external agencies to quantify what we could see and feel that morning. Their figure for loss and damage is EC$3.5 Billion. Damage featured in all areas; in housing, schools and other public buildings, roads and bridges, agriculture, electricity, telecommunications, water, sanitation and tourism.”
He said that it is understandable why some chose to flee the country after Hurricane Maria, as the destruction the island suffered was not easy to recover from. However, he noted that the majority of residents “stood firm and chose to fight.”
He said: “Unshaken, but with new resolve, we declared on the floor of the UN General Assembly on 23rd September, that Dominica was going to be the first climate resilient nation in the world, and we began hatching the plan to get us there. That evolving plan had three components: relief, early recovery, and building a resilient nation.”
PM Skerrit told the nation that the plan has three components. The first phase, he said, was to focus on relief efforts. The second phase would have continued relief efforts with an increasing shift in focus to early recovery and planning for the final phase, which would be to execute a substantial climate-resilient building programme.
The Dominica Prime Minister announced that relief efforts continue and have matured, stating that EC$141.5 million has been approved for various aspects of relief and early recovery components, including, establishing access to communities, the provision of food, water, shelter and other basic needs.
He noted that some 69,000 individuals now have access to safe drinking water, while thirty-nine out of forty-two damaged water supply systems have been provisionally repaired with the others nearing completion.
He further noted that only four percent of the population is relying on water trucks and efforts are being made to bring that figure to zero. He added that all primary and secondary roads have been cleared.
Continued repairs and interventions, he said, are being done on the other roads, bridges and around the rivers in preparation for the next hurricane season.
“Our main ports are open and back on the electricity grid. Compared to where we were, food is generally available with our local market fully functional. As a matter of fact, bananas and plantains are available for sale at the Roseau Market. Our hucksters have resumed exporting to other islands,” the Prime Minister stated.
