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 would conservatively put the cost to the state owned infrastructure to about $ 100 million XCD based on my internal calculations on what I have seen to date.
The response of St. Lucians has been fascinating, my own input on Sunday morning in clearing trees on the La Toc road was readily supporting by other neighbours. The volunteerism has become a hallmark of the culture of St. Lucia. Unfortunately, while I have seen the wonderful work of the volunteers, I have also unmasked the “vultures’’ dressed as doves, with the sole intent on engaging in a feeding frenzy. My hope is that the government will institute the measures to ensure all these vultures are captured and put in bird cages at Bordelais. We cannot have volunteers and vultures co- existing.
There are lessons to be learned from both Debbie and Tomas. I was in the middle of Tropical Debbie and there were lessons learned that were not effected in the response to Hurricane Tomas. It was unbelievable to listen to the radio and hear two days after the event about being not able to make contact with the south of the island. St. Lucia is a little over twenty miles long and twelve miles wide. In 2010, when we have moved from smoke signals and pigeons, we were unable to make contact with persons less than 5 miles away. I found this incredulous, and certainly the Ham radios which were so effective during Debbie seem to be underutilized.
The responses of LUCELEC, DIGICEL and LIME demonstrate that utility companies that are well capitalized are better able to respond to crises. WASCO’s ability to respond to the disaster was primarily due to its poor financial state. It has nothing to do with technical capacity; it is solely in my opinion one of finance. These utility companies had a stock of materials and the ability to engage private sub-contractors to do restoration works, WASCO could not afford.
It means that disaster responsiveness is tied to fiscal health, and it is on this basis that I would support the privatization of WASCO. This Government made a colossal error in bowing to the bellows of those who objected to the privatization and has now a responsibility to begin the process again. I would however propose that WASCO be sold to LUCELEC as there are inherent synergies that can be created between the two companies. LUCELEC is majority owned by a combination of the Government of St. Lucia (through NIC and Castries City Council) and private citizens and corporations locally.
WASCO is a large consumer of electricity, and most of the clients of WASCO are also clients of LUCELEC. Billing can therefore be centralized and when you don’t pay your water bill they will cut your lights too – low default rate guaranteed!!
A restructured WASCO must also look at business plans such as bottling of water and Vitamin water. They must also look at diversifying the raw water sources. There is no reason why WASCO should not be drilling wells and have a desalination plant. I believe that in addition to the John Compton Dam, we should have wells tapping into our large groundwater resources, and a desalination plant. Such diversity of water supply is required for St. Lucia.
The restructured WASCO will also have an established public relations department. In Tomas we heard promises of water supply being restored even before an assessment was done on the damage to the various facilities. This caused much frustration to many citizens. So let there be a new WASCO before the next storm.
We also need to look at the bridges and culverts around the island, especially along the main arterial roads. When the Gros Islet Highway was developed in the 1970’s, large ARMCO pipe culverts were used to cross the main rivers. During Debbie, the Bonne Terre River culvert and the culvert at Choc were damaged; the Bonne Terre culvert was repaired. In 1999, the crossing at Bise was damaged and was replaced. In 2007, the crossing at Gros Islet near Digicel was damaged and was replaced. In 2010, as a result of Tomas, the culvert at Sunbilt and Choc were damaged. Both should be replaced.
The same holds for the East Coast Road where the same ARMCO pipes were used in the early 1970’s, they have been failing for the last 10 years from Dennery to Vieux Fort. These also have been periodically replaced when failure has occurred and Hurricane Tomas has again exposed the vulnerability in this area.
On the West Coast since its construction in 1989, almost every retaining wall from Ticolon to Marigot has failed. It is a lesson for future construction and a case has been made to move to reinforced earth structures as was done on the Millennium Highway.
Most of the damage to homes either due to flooding or landslides related to land use issues. Either houses are constructed on the banks of rivers or in areas prone to landslides. The DCA has to begin to do the hazard mapping and reject applications for development in areas deemed hazardous.
The Government has to be extremely prudent in the determination of a first response to reconstruction. The country cannot afford the reconstruction of all the damaged infrastructure, and some roads will have to be abandoned for a while, this is the stark reality. There has to be an honest conversation with John Public and convey that the country’s finances cannot support such a massive investment in infrastructure. While there will be some discomfort, some residents will have to travel longer distance to get to their home.
Restoration works will have to be prioritized based on two factors (a) ensuring primary access and (b) supporting the economy. The West Coast is critical to the cruise tourism sector. The East Coast and Gros Islet Highway are critical to the land based tourism.
We have to ensure that the clean-up phase is well managed and well accounted otherwise we will have fewer funds for rehabilitation works. In this period of ‘anything goes’, equipment abuse can easily occur and one can run up a large bill in a short time with nothing to show. That is the challenge of the Ministry of Communications Works Transport & Public Utilities.
While we all wait for water to return, there needs to be some normalcy returned to the schools. One would suggest that certain primary schools be considered as “Teaching Centres’’, where the Grade 6 students from different schools are assembled. For example, Camille Henry can cater for Carmen Rene, Methodist Primary, and Canon Laurie. The schools are strategically grouped and water is trucked to storage. One truckload can cater for two days. Each child is given a bottle of water by the teacher for the day and hand sanitizers are used in the washroom. The same will hold for the secondary schools.
Let the creativity emerge in the midst of the crisis.