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Engineering Registration Board – Overboard Or Underboard?

By in Print

Recently, I spoke with a young engineer who was describing his ordeal in being registered as an engineer within St. Lucia. He indicated to me that after three years of effort, he believes he is close to completion of this important aspect of his career. I believe the Engineering Registration Board has become a law unto itself in creating procedures that have no basis in law. The Act is clear as to the requirements for Registration, yet the Board over the years has introduced various conditions which they have said should form part of the registration process. No young engineer should be subjected to three years of frustration to be registered. The hypocrisy however is that the conditions that are inscribed in law were the basis of the registration of the Board members as engineers. How could you now say that these provisions in the Act are allowing inexperienced engineers to become...

After Tomas – What Next?

By in Print

St. Lucia has been twice affected by significant island-wide flood damage in sixteen years. Tropical Storm Debbie hit in September 1994, and Hurricane Tomas visited on October 2010. This is a starling phenomenon, as each event has been described as 1 in 100 year events. If this is occurring so rapidly it means that all our hydrological design parameters have to change and a 1 in 20 year event is what was once a 1 in 100 yr event. Hurricane Tomas was a devastating occurrence and while the numbers for the damage are being tallied, undoubtedly it will be a huge sum. I believe we need to distinguish between the cost of the hurricane in overall damage to the island and the cost of the damage to the state owned sectors. One is not sure as to what sum the Prime Minister referred to when he identified a sum of $ 500 Million USD. Definitely, it cannot relate to state owned infrastructure, as I...