Government prepares to assemble houses from China

Preparations are in full gear for local artisans to start assembling the Chinese-made prefabricated houses that will be the new residences of scores of people displaced by severe weather activity earlier this year.

In an update on Tuesday at the site of Government’s new storage facility at the Six Roads Industrial Estate in St Philip where containers with the house parts from China were being offloaded, Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dr William Duguid disclosed that a work plan is already in place.

“We have started to take delivery of the containers and we are looking to get as many out here over the next few days,” he said.

“So, as soon as Customs and health [authorities] do their due diligence after we open the containers and check that they are what they are supposed to be… we intend to start the erection of the houses as quickly as we can,” he said.

Duguid said locals have been identified to construct the houses.

“We are going to have training going on for the local artisans over the next few days, and once that training is complete and we get access to the material, we will immediately start construction and we will be working night and day. We have lights available and two shifts of eight hours each, over a 16-hour day,” the Housing Minister said, adding that the aim is to have as many of the houses as possible completed by yearend.

A total of 150 houses are being built for families who lost their homes either during the June 16 freak storm or when Hurricane Elsa struck on July 2.
Government had come under heavy criticism for its decision to import the prefab houses in a joint arrangement between East West Building Solutions (Barbados) and the National Housing Corporation (NHC).

Among the critics was the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) which argued that Government had bypassed local contractors and other professionals to purchase the houses said to be valued at $29 million.

Government, however, had insisted that local contractors were not able to deliver the number of houses needed in the time required.

On Tuesday, Minister Duguid explained that the containers would be used as storage facilities – first for the personal effects of the displaced families and then for Government – once the house parts had been removed.

He said the new storage area was a collaboration involving the Barbados Investment & Development Corporation that provided the land, the Grantley

Adams InternationalnAirport which gave the material to pave the area, the National Housing Corporation and the Ministry of Finance that provided the funding. (SD)