Approximately half a billion EC dollars needed for recovery
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Contact: J. Hinkson Compton
Thursday 4 November 2010 – At a meeting in Soufriere this week with Prime Minister Stephenson King, discussions were held on the potential costs for rebuilding the damaged infrastructure of certain communities in Saint Lucia after the destruction caused by Hurricane Tomas last weekend. The Prime Minster’s initial estimate was at one hundred million US dollars, however he admitted that, that the real estimate having scrutinized the damages is closer to half a billion EC dollars.
“The damage is so extensive to infrastructure, to property, to lives, that 100 million EC dollars cannot do the job; it’s anything climbing to five hundred million US dollars, for what I have seen taking place here.
Mr. King noted that the cost of the John Compton Dam would be a few million dollars and that Fond St. Jacques would have to be declared a special enforcement area allowing for many of the residents to be moved to other areas. This, according to Mr. King, translates to new developments new buildings, new housing and new infrastructure and utilities.
“I am encouraged by the level of interest so far. Most times international support is dependent on need rather than just giving, and there has been a lot of interest in our needs as to what we want exactly and what is required to enable us to reconstruct the country. So far the level of interest is extremely high in terms of actual monies coming in. We have already been able to trigger off a number of envelopes of assistance under disaster funds.”
Prime minister King said under the CCRIF—Catastrophic Caribbean Risk Insurance Fund— the mechanism has already been triggered off and Saint Lucia will benefit from an initial assessment of 3.2 million US dollars from that programme. The British Government, the US government, the French government, the government of Panama and a number of other governments in the Caribbean, have already been in contact with us.
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