Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment, Marsha Caddle.
Responses are coming in regarding the Request for Proposals recently put out by Government for designs providing climate resilient low and middle income housing.
That’s according to Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment, Marsha Caddle, who said this initiative is part of the Government’s Roofs to Reefs Programme. She was speaking at a presentation and panel discussion at Courtyard Marriott yesterday hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank under the theme “Assessing and Addressing the Impact of Natural Disaster”.
“We want to make sure that as people build they are aware that they have choices and that really if they want to protect their investment – if they want to protect their expenditure – they should build in a way that makes sure that their housing is sustainable and they protect themselves and their families, and their lives and their access to basic services like water and sanitation,” she said.
She made the point while indicating that efforts to build resilience in this country must take into serious consideration the people, households and communities that make up the country. Caddle said it is imperative that we have a country that is sustainable, an economy that is climate proof and that efforts are made to protect the people and their livelihoods. According to Caddle this is being pursued through Government’s “Roofs to Reefs Programme”.
“The Roofs to Reefs Programme is one that looks beyond the macro approach to how we address resilience and importantly acknowledges that people, households and communities have to be at the heart of our resilience efforts... It is looking at issues of coastal erosion, it is looking at issues of how the coral reefs are affected; but our starting point is the individual, our starting point is the household,” she told those gathered.
The minister explained that this approach is being taken because when it comes to natural disasters, people who are most vulnerable are the ones most affected. As such, she said the Roofs to Reefs Programme seeks to ensure that people are safe and secure in their homes, people are contribute to the resilience building efforts and that their roofs and homes in general can withstand a category three or four hurricane, so that they can continue to live productive lives in the aftermath of a natural disaster event.
“The Roofs to Reefs is a comprehensive programme, we really frame it as the development model for the country for at least the next decade because it includes all of those critical investments at the level of the household, at the level of public infrastructure, at the level of the economy and financial resilience – all of those inputs and investments that are required in order to make our country truly climate resilient,” she said. (JRT)
