The Mahaut constituency is to have 33 new houses by April 2020; and a new health centre. MP Rayburn Blackmoore said the new apartments are part of the promises made by the Skerrit-led DLP administration to provide free housing to every family in Dominica following the devastations of Hurricane Maria. The 33 new apartments will be constructed in Jimmit and those for other parts of the constituency will follow soon.
According to Blackmoore, the government is using CBI funds to provide the housing, with the contract being awarded to the Montreal Management Consultants Establishment (MMCE). The ultimate aim is to provide climate-resilient shelter to every family in Dominica, and to also make the country the first climate-resilient nation in the world.
Going back memory lane, Blackmoore said over 3,000 houses were destroyed in Mahaut by Maria when the hurricane struck in 2017. He said most of the houses were completely destroyed, partly damaged, or significantly impacted one way or another by the storm – with only about seven houses left untouched. He said the Labour Party jumped in to help people rebuild their roofs but ended up constructing an entire house for everyone.
“We of course, the Labour Party Government, immediately thereafter started a program first of all to actually assist people to recover their houses,” Blackmoore revealed. “So we launched a programme to assist persons, and initially when that program was conceptualized, the idea was to help people simply with their roofs, but we have found ourselves rebuilding [entire] houses.”
He said the government has spent millions of dollars to provide people with decent houses across the country, with more than EC$11 million already spent to construct apartments for people in Mahaut constituency. He revealed the government carried out a survey in Mahaut, Canefield, Massacre, Tarreau, Warner, and Layou Park among others to determine those who were most impacted by the hurricane damage and who needed a residence urgently.
“So we have built a 33 unit structure with 27 two bedroom apartments and 6 three bedroom apartments,” Blackmoore explained.
He further revealed that housing construction should have started in Massacre before Jimmit if not for some land issues which are now resolved. He said as soon as keys to residences are given to people in Jimmit, construction will commence in the other parts of the constituency to house people who are already listed for such residential intervention from the government.
Furthermore, a new health centre is also coming to Mahaut. Project manager for MMCE, Christopher Timmins, said the health facility will be set up close to the Tiza playing field in Mahaut. MMCE was awarded the construction of 11 healthcare centres in Dominica, and the design for that of Mahaut is ready with construction to commence soon.
Timmins described the design as having patients’ wards, consulting room, clinic and residents upstairs for the nursing and medical staffs.
“The health centre has two beds for short term stay for patients, a doctor’s consulting room, nurses consulting room/treatment room, two multi-purpose clinics which can be used for what the individual centre decides it needs and a pharmacist vaccine stores where drugs can be dispensed,” Timmins explained. “Upstairs we have self-contained accommodations for up to four nurses. They will have their own kitchen, a very large living/dining room, bathrooms and access to a large balcony so they can relax when they’re not trying to make people better.”
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