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Contact:
Primus Hutchinson
Friday, May 07, 2004 - An Inter-Ministerial group has been formed to take
ownership, inter-change ideas and effect improvements to the management of slope
stability in communities (MOSSAIC).
MOSSAIC is the brain child of Professor Malcolm Anderson of the University of
Bristol in the United Kingdom. The main objective is to establish joint
research, development and training activities in the areas of slope stability
and hydrology in Saint Lucia. The project was implemented on the basis of a
Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government of Saint Lucia,
through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the University
of Bristol.
Speaking on the GIS television programme “Interview”, Professor Anderson says,
the intention is to bring together expertise within government to deal with low
cost improvements, particularly in areas that are in need of slope stability.
The MOSSAIC programme is targeted primarily at communities in the Castries basin
where houses are built on very steep slopes making drainage a serious problem
with the potential for landslide risk. Professor Anderson indicated, that as a
result of that particular situation, the community of Skate-town, which is
nestled between the upper Sunbilt area and Bois Patat in Castries was
identified. “We have developed a very inexpensive way of forming drains that
in-fact, almost any of the residents could afford to implement round the house”,
Professor Anderson said.
The MOSSAIC project involves constructed drains consisting of plastic overlain
by a wire mesh to keep the plastic in place. “This type of drainage is
approximately a tenth of the cost of concrete drains,” said the Professor,
adding, “residents can themselves construct these drains around their properties
to keep away water, channelling it instead, into concrete line culverts.”
According to Professor Anderson, the residents of Skate-town were able to
construct forty feet of drainage in approximately two hours.
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