St Vincent and Grenadines to build 1500 houses in massive Post-Hurricane reconstruction plan

St Vincent and Grenadines: The government has announced a massive construction plan under which 1500 new homes will be rebuilt in the coming 24 months. This project which was earlier aimed to construct 800 homes before Beryl, has now increased its scope after the impact of the hurricane.

Under this project, 4 thousand houses are to be addressed for construction. These houses will be repaired for each and every damage they have undergone and more new homes will also be added to provide a more sustainable and resilient residence. 

The construction will be led over each and every house, that has gone under minimal damage, suffered severely, or was completely destroyed. The Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves in a radio show on Sunday stated that the construction will be led quickly with resilience techniques. 

Minister Camillo Gonsalves further highlighted it as a challenge as the construction is to be led on a wider scale. He further revealed that the houses that were inspected indicated that they could have been built better before with a more climate resiliency approach affirming that the new construction will aim so. 

The Minister also noted that the housing properties will be provided with more security and the government will vigilantly watch for every aspect of the construction. He then disclosed that the construction will take place over a time span of 24 months that makes two years. 

He stressed the fact that the authorities will take note of all the updates to be completed by the homeowners who will be provided with rebuilding materials. 

The funding for this project has notably come from the Saudi Government, however, this funding was led for the construction of 800 houses before Beryl hit the island. 

 “We borrowed money from the Saudi Government prior to the storm to build houses, that was 800 houses, and then we have the additional impact of Beryl and so we are going to be embarking on a massive home reconstruction program that had already been planned but now has to be augmented to deal with Beryl," Minister Gonsalves explained,” the Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves said.

Notably, the island nation was severely impacted by the devastating hurricane Beryl, which caused widespread damage causing a huge loss to the authorities. The category 5 hurricane was life-threatening and caused almost every facility across the island to shatter into pieces.