#BTSpeakingOut – How prepared are we really?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Trevor Browne

With the approach of what promises to be yet another active hurricane season, the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) is again very concerned at the country’s level of national unpreparedness for the possible challenges of Mother Nature.

While we have benefitted from many years of blessed fortune and good luck, it should be clear from the experiences of practically all of our neighbours and from our own past experiences, that the inevitable will one day impact us.

While the country has been understandably distracted by COVID-19, volcanic ash, price hikes and various curfews; the complexities of management in the 21st century requires that we be able to walk and chew gum simultaneously.

Even more critically, we must be able to do so after having put meaningful proactive plans in place to identify the path we need to walk, and the kind of gum we should chose to chew.

The fact that Barbados continues without a functional building code in 2021 should be a matter of immense shame to everyone involved – and it certainly is to us in BAPE.

A National Building Code establishes minimum standards for building and construction – given the known threats and hazards; and is the globally accepted best-practice for proactive hazard mitigation.

After her visit to the Bahamas following Dorian, our PM promised solemnly that “another year would not pass” without this embarrassing omission being addressed. Yet despite some outstanding work led by the PM herself and by the Town Planning Association to develop a new Planning and Development Act that would have addressed the issue, we remain in 2021 exactly where we have been for the last many decades. It appears that the Act has stalled in the parliamentary process of proclamation.

This is really not good enough. And it certainly is not reflective of management by proactive planning and coordinated actions.

We at BAPE will not dwell on the obvious details of the country’s unpreparedness – such as poor drainage, the impact of minor storms and rainfall events on our roads and utilities, or even the general poor state of many of our buildings.

Our bigger concern is the apparent lack of any serious interest in bringing a modern level of professionalism to the national challenge of managing our fragile infrastructure with limited resources.

The era of management by trial-and-error ended decades ago, and even though the economic cost of continuing with that outdated methodology has been staggering and blatant, it appears that this continues to be the genesis of our plans going forward.

We at BAPE are not in the funeral business. We are not particularly useful after the disaster has occurred. Effective engineering requires that the professionalism and expertise which we bring to the table be applied proactively, economically and scientifically.

We wish and pray that 2021 continues in the vein of recent past years with only slight or moderate interactions with the forces of nature for Barbados. This is the best that we can do at this stage.

However, if the country is ever interested in the proactive, cost-effective and professional approach that can have implications for our preparedness in years to come, then BAPE continues to make itself and its resources fully available to this country – which we are here, and ready and willing, to serve.

Trevor Browne Lt. Col. (Retd) – President of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) Chairman Council of Caribbean Engineering Organisations (CCEO).