NASSAU, BAHAMAS- Updating the country’s building code is not an ‘overnight process’, Minister of Works Desmond Bannister said yesterday.
“The minister responsible for disaster recovery has been actively meeting with my building code people, building control officer,” Bannister told reporters outside Cabinet.
“He has involved the University of Miami in the process and they are actively looking at the process involved in updating the building code. It is not an overnight process.
“It is something that takes some time and study. They have been to Abaco on several occasions, they have examined the conditions that exist on Abaco. I believe they have found a number of things.”
He continued: “A lot of the older buildings were not up to code because the code changed after those building were put in place. A number of people had built without regards to the code.
“He’s going to have to look at bringing in a number of new inspectors for all those family islands where people have been building without regards for the code.
Bannister said: “As we move ahead now we are going to look at a number of challenges related to flooding in those communities because a number of people have been building below the flood plain and a number of those challenges he is looking at.”
A recent Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report noted that hurricane Dorian left almost 3,000 homes uninhabitable and 7,339 severely damaged.
The report estimated that the storm had a $1.487 billion impact on the housing sector in Abaco and Grand Bahama.
