Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA) Chairman John Michael Clarke said it would now cost about half a billion dollars to reconstruct public infrastructure that was destroyed during Hurricane Dorian.
The Category 5 storm barreled through parts of Abaco and Grand Bahama causing billions of dollars in damage and claiming countless lives two years ago today.
Clarke revealed earlier this week that the DRA has to date spent more than $43.6 million on rebuilding projects including small home repairs, clean-up and debris/waste management, street light replacement, airport terminal renovations and runway lighting, as well as building modular homes.
Clarke said he expects at least $500 million to be spent when all is said and done.
“We had estimated in January 2020 that to get just public infrastructure (rebuilt) we would need $306 million, public infrastructure and housing repair, not new housing. That was the estimate, for if we were to go back to August 30 (2019) and put everything back in place how it was it would cost about $306 million to do that. But that’s not what we’re doing. Reconstruction isn’t just putting it back how it was, reconstruction is replacing and making it more resilient,” he said in an interview with The Nassau Guardian.
“So when all is said and done the resiliency factor is another 30 percent, so that’s $400 million right off the top. Then you’re not factoring in cost escalation as a result of COVID, which has happened to a lot of items in construction which could be as high as another 30 to 40 percent for materials. The scarcity factor for construction labor on Abaco, which has always been the norm (adds) to the construction costs throughout The Bahamas. When you add all of that you can get to $500 million at this point.”
Exactly two years ago today Hurricane Dorian decimated the country’s second and third largest economies when it struck, packing sustained winds of 185 miles per hour.
Clarke insisted it would take a national effort involving every Bahamian to rebuild those disaster zones more quickly.
“I’ve always said that reconstruction is a national effort because in order for reconstruction to take place, in order to stimulate working the reconstruction zone, concessions are made in terms of duties and tariffs and all of that impacts the national revenues, so that means outside the disaster zones other islands have to do a little bit more in order to keep the nation moving. That being said, all of us are stakeholders and it meant that the cost of reconstruction is cost over and above what we ordinarily do. So that is our focus, that’s the national focus,” he said.
“We need to get the pillars two and three of our economy back as quickly as possible as a Bahamian people. That’s better done when we are able to coalesce together and come up with the best solutions and together work towards making sure those solutions happen. We might have arguments about what should be priority and how those priorities are executed, but what we should not be arguing about is the need to build a better, more resilient Bahamas, not only for these two islands in the disaster zone but every island.”
In 2020, despite challenges in rebuilding, Abaco contributed $243 million or (2.3 percent) to the national gross domestic product (GDP), and Grand Bahama contributed $1.43 billion.
The post Half a billion dollars needed to rebuild Dorian lost infrastructure appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/half-a-billion-dollars-needed-to-rebuild-dorian-lost-infrastructure/
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