CATEGORY:CONSTRUCTION
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By Trevor Thwaites
Inside Grenada correspondent
Saturday December 23,2006


ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada: A project, geared to assist in the rebuilding of the country after Hurricane Ivan is underway with support from the Organization of American States (OAS), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Agency for Reconstruction and Development (ARD).

“Building Back Better”, is the theme of the initiative, which began in August and will run for two years. Several workshops will be held for workers involved in the construction sector focusing primarily on “Construction Quality Assurance”, CQA.

The project will provide training in an attempt to enhance the skills of physical planning inspectors, engineers, architects, contractors, draughts men and tradesmen, to produce stronger, more sustainable and quality buildings. With 29,000 of the country’s 33,000 households totally destroyed or severely damaged by the passage of Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004, reports indicate that the standard and quality of construction of homes and buildings here has been way below par.

This has been confirmed by a survey conducted in 2005 by Construction Engineer Partnership (CEP) of Barbados. “Reports indicate that there has been a very, very low quality in the construction industry in Grenada, which was manifested in the widespread devastation from Hurricane Ivan”. These were the sentiments expressed by Country Manager of the OAS, Francis Mc Barnette. The programme is expected to cost in the region of US$70 million dollars. “We need to prepare for severe whether and build homes properly. Too many roofs came off homes. We have to ensure that structures are correct”, Mc Barnette pointed out.

Project consultant, Terrance Smith, said that a residential design and construction quality assurance mechanism is being developed that will guide all types of construction including residential, industrial and business. He said that a series of training activities have been planned for the CQA Mechanism that will begin operations in June of 2007. “It is largely a training and institutional development type programme.” The Agency for Reconstruction and Development (ARD), which has been entrusted with the responsibility of building the country back better, is very much involved in the exercise.

The ARD’s Physical Planning Consultant. Elizabeth Charles-Soomer. said that Grenada has signed on to the Caribbean unified building code and that construction will be strictly in keeping with the code. The regional building code could be divided into two categories: one- big buildings that are above two floors and above 2,500 square feet and the other – residential, which are for smaller buildings below 2,500 square feet. “The Building Code is a set of standards for design and construction from land clearance, electrical installation, to completion”, said Charles-Soomer.

However, she admits that despite the efforts being made to build back better, it will be extremely difficult to monitor the construction of every building and that institutionalizing the code could be a huge challenge. Smith too has acknowledged the concern. “Checks are made with respect to the quantity of work done during construction, but they do not include quality. There in lies part of the problem of the CQA mechanism”, he noted. The OAS is nonetheless hopeful that Grenada will rise to the challenge. “Building Back Better must not be a cliché. It must be something that we can measure and demonstrate”, Mc Barnette said.