New care facility for aged ‘in Botanical Gardens’

Minister of Environment and National Beautification Trevor Prescod announced Wednesday that a new geriatric hospital is to be built at the Botanical Gardens at Codrington, St Michael.

“Probably that is news to some people,” Prescod said as he made the announcement during debate on the 2020/2021 Estimates.

“In recent times we took a master plan of the special delineations in the gardens and what exactly we would do with every spot. It is 254 acres of land.

“I will also tell you that we have plans ahead of constructing a geriatric hospital on the eastern side of the land that we are now developing.”

In January, the Government announced that preliminary plans were in place for the construction of a new state-owned geriatric hospital and the demolition of the existing Beckles Road, St Michael facility.

At that time, Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic said that the project had been under review by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.

“It is something that as Minister of Health and Wellness, I am looking forward to and that is because I believe that we have not really utilised what the Lord has given us to full effect. We have an ageing population. Per capita, only Okinawa in Japan has more centenarians than Barbados,” said Bostic.

He added: “We have an excellent climate; we are a tourist destination of choice, so it seems to me as though we ought to invest in our elderly care facilities to make Barbados a hub for elderly tourists and persons who want to rehabilitate, to be able to come to Barbados in this pleasant climate with our very nice people and that will bring some much needed revenue into the country.”

Meanwhile, during today’s debate, Minister of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams, offered to build a solar farm at the botanical gardens and encouraged his colleague minister to work with him to make it happen.

“You must be aware that under the last government, there was an intention to turn the entire space in the Botanical Gardens into a solar farm. I am very glad that was not done,” Abrahams said.

“Having said that, there are areas in the botanical gardens where the soil might not be conducive to the horticultural exploits that you have in the rest of the gardens, and I think that some of that land could actually be used for renewable energy.

“It would set a perfect example if the botanical gardens, which is above the Belle aquifer, was to be powered entirely from renewable energy. If your ministry could see towards allocating a couple acres that we could put down some solar panels or some other renewable clean energy installation that would power the entire botanical gardens and the NCC headquarters, … and I would allow the investor to get their return from the feeding tariff. It’s a mutually beneficial exercise,” Abrahams added.

Additionally, the energy minister said he believes, going forward, all of the NCC installations that might be conducive to some aspect of renewable energy should be so retrofitted.

“I would like you to talk to us so that we can ease your electricity bill and still collect something on the backend in terms of the feeding tariffs,” Abrahams said.

“It sets a good example that the Ministry of the Environment is pushing to make itself self sufficient in electricity and to generate its electricity from clean sources.”

In response, Prescod said: “It probably would be very good if we can have that form of alternative energy to use in the gardens to supply the required electricity to the new geriatric hospital there.”