Venezuela Donates Homes to Storm Victims in Dominica

Government officials in Dominica announced that by next month some of the citizens displaced by last August’s Tropical Storm Erika will be handed over the keys to their new homes, which are to be donated by the government of Venezuela.

The people of Dubique, in the south of the island, will be relocated to an area known as Center in the southern community of Grand Bay.

A ministerial subcommittee on resettlement was established to oversee the relocation. Members of that group recently toured the site and gave an update on the progress.

“We are trying our best. There are a number of challenges, but we are fighting them and our aim is to get these houses completed as soon as by Easter," said the head of a ministerial committee overseeing the relocation of victims, John Colin McIntyire. "The remaining works like roads and utilities will completed soon after. Very soon from now, we will be moving our people into these houses.”

The project’s contractor Chris Walter said the Easter deadline will be met.

“We started this project in November and the target is to build 50 houses by the end of April. Right now, we have 36 of the 50 erected and we are on our way. At the start of the project, we had some difficulties with access to water and power," Walter said. "We still have water challenges, because we use a lot of water on site so we had to invest in a water truck.”

The 50 Petro Casas were donated by the Venezuelan government. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited the storm-ravaged country in September 2015, and symbolically handed over 300 homes to assist in the rebuilding and resettlement efforts.

The bulk of the Petro Casas will go to former residents of the southern village of Petite Savanne. That community was the hardest hit during Tropical Storm Erika and residents had to be evacuated after government deemed the entire area unsafe.

On Friday, the country’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said the Government of Venezuela has signed a contract with a company for 100 houses to be built for those former Petite Savanne residents, with 50 already on the island.

“We are working on a number of issues there. I think in the next several weeks we will start the actual physical works and even the construction of homes ... all of the other homes have been constructed and are awaiting shipment from Venezuela,” he said.

Maduro has pledged Venezuela and ALBA’s support for Dominica as it continues to rebuild. ALBA countries provided vital aid to Dominica following the storm, which devastated the country on Aug. 27, 2015. Hope for the displaced people is now coming in the form of homes.