The Ministry of Works and Family Island Affairs’ Unregulated Communities Action Task Force is conducting demolition exercises on the island of Abaco.
Building Control Officer, Craig Delancy is on the ground in Abaco. He said the Ministry hopes to prevent rebuilding of the unregulated communities. “We hope to have some surveillance to start at the end of the clean up to ensure that we don’t have people coming back again. That’s still in the infant stages as to exactly how we would carry out that monitoring. We hope that persons in the other unregulated areas would take heed and move swiftly in order to ensure that we have a peaceful transition,” he said.
Also in Abaco was the Director of the Forestry Unit in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Danielle Hanek who spoke to the collaboration of agencies on the demolition project. She said, “these areas were traditionally disturbed meaning that they’re either clear cut previously either for agricultural purposes or for development. And so we have to look at the history of the land and also what has occurred since then. So for example, we have a number of cesspits or wells that are in close proximity to each other in addition to the debris on the land, we have to figure out how we navigate that because many of the cesspits that we found in our initial assessment are not installed correctly meaning that they are not properly lined so you’re also looking at impacts to the water table in this area.”
Notices were issued for the demolition of the unregulated communities on Abaco in January.
