The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government was yesterday urged to engage qualified architects and urban planners from the private sector to improve the resilience and pace of post-Dorian reconstruction.

Gustavus Ferguson, the Institute of Bahamian Architects (IBA) president, told Tribune Business that the profession’s skills appeared to have been virtually ignored in the rebuilding effort as he was unaware of any urban planners or architects being involved with the Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA).

This was despite 25 IBA members possessing international certifications relating to post-disaster assessment, recovery and related procedures, and he lamented their lack of involvement as “a missed opportunity” for The Bahamas to build Abaco and Grand Bahama back better following the Category Five storm’s September 2019 devastation.

Asserting that neither he nor the Institute wished to be “caught up in the political fray” currently ensnaring the DRA, Mr Ferguson said: “From inception we were asking that urban planners and architects should be involved in that Authority.

“I’m not aware of any actively working on it. From our standpoint, for that Authority to be effective and to the advantage of the country, definitely urban planners and architects should be involved. They are in the midst of trying to repair and rebuild the built environment, and that’s where our expertise comes in.....

“There’s a lot of migration that happens after these disasters and if, as a country, we’d like those persons to return to the island of their birth and or place they’ve called home for many years, there has to be a conscious effort to ensure the environment in which they live is not only rebuilt but able to survive a disaster of that magnitude - rebuilding it to withstand a disaster of that magnitude. That’s something we can assist with.”

The IBA chief said their involvement had briefly extended to accompanying Iram Lewis, the then-minister responsible for disaster preparedness and recovery, on a trip to Abaco and Grand Bahama to assess Dorian-related damage. However, the Institute had heard nothing further, and now plans to communicate formally with the Davis administration to make its concerns known.

“Our jobs is to help develop our economy, and everybody benefits from it. Getting people back to normalcy from disasters is extremely important,” Mr Ferguson added. “There are missed opportunities when experts are not involved in these areas. From a country standpoint it’s a missed opportunity.

“It’s suffered because you’re asking to rebuild the built environment and none of the stakeholders responsible in this jurisdiction are participating. That’s the major concern we have. As stakeholders in this country we have expertise in this area, given our history of natural disasters.

“This is an opportunity for the Government to engage some experts to assist disaster recovery, and we are certainly in a position to assist our country in that effort.”

The IBA, in a statement, added: “Too often, authority underestimates the importance of urban planners and architects’ contributions in the planning process. IBA professionals were trained to identify community needs and develop plans to create, grow and revitalise the area, overseeing all aspects of planning: infrastructure, economic and environmental impacts.

“The responsibility of producing a beautiful, harmonious indoor and outdoor living space is serious and significant. However, if leadership neglects to include these available Bahamian experts on such committees, it risks repeating the past environmental failures that are prevalent in communities across the nation.”