OECS/GCCA iLAND Resilience Project is recommending inputs to a new Building Code for Dominica

​The OECS/GCCA iLAND Resilience Project is recommending inputs to a new Building Code for Dominica. The recommendations form part of an ongoing region-wide building code consultation, in an effort to encourage people in the construction industry to understand and adhere to necessary building regulations.
 
Consultant Engineer to the iLAND Resilience Project, Alison King-Joseph is asking property owners to ensure that their builders comply with the building regulations, to ensure their safety and that of their properties. She said, “The first thing you do when you want to develop a piece of land for building, is to understand what are the vulnerabilities of that site, and whether it is appropriate for building or not. If it is, you also need to know what are the requirements to build on that property, so as to ascertain that it can withstand the hazards to which it may be exposed. We are building awareness, so that persons who want to build, can have proper guidance on the vulnerabilities of the proposed building locations, and that they build properly to suit their intended purposes”.
 
Just over 2 months ago Dominica was devastated by category 5 Hurricane Maria. To this day, the island is still recovering & literally picking up the pieces. Building owners may soon receive insurance funds, and hopefully start rebuilding, but officials say the island has insufficient resources to monitor all building activities.
 
Dominica’s Chief Physical Planner, Kelvin Rolle, is appealing to builders & property owners, to ensure the building code is followed, and quality assurance checks are conducted. He asks that special attention be paid to the construction of roofs. Rolle said, “We must pay special attention to where people build in River Valleys. There are some homes and small villages located in river valleys which experienced tremendous destruction. Almost the entire watershed and trees were adversely affected. It was massive destruction in these communities and villages”.
 
Rolle notes that residents close to rivers may have to be relocated, because of the impacts of adverse weather conditions. He says the river valleys should not necessarily be abandoned, but should be protected through climate change resilience interventions. He is therefore suggesting that new development plans be created for areas that were totally destroyed, during this Hurricane season.